Good Old Days - August 4, 2011

125 years ago

August 6, 1886

The toot of the locomotive will be heard within a week, and the train will be in Garfield before September.

It is a mean sneak of a thief who will steal clothing from an engine house while the boys are away fighting fire. Taking advantage of the opportunity offered last Tuesday evening, a thief of this character entered the engine house and abstracted a coat and vest belonging to Harry De Pladge, a coat from Don Morrison and a pair of pantaloons from Owen Febler. With his vest, De Pledge lost a watch, chain and seal, the latter a keepsake and valued very highly.

Water is becoming scarce around Garfield on account of the continued dry weather. Or did prohibition cause it to so rapidly disappear?

McCord, Ford & Co. commenced this week the erection of a 24 x 60 two-story steam furniture factory at the south end of the Cooper lake bridge, which they hope to have running within two weeks.

To lessen the danger of fire, the common council has passed an ordinance prohibiting the use of smokehouses within city limits.

100 years ago

August 4, 1911

For the first time in the history of Colfax newspaperdom, a Meganthaler Linotype is being used to present the local news of the week to readers. The new machine was installed in the Gazette office last week by C.W. Tage, representing the San Francisco branch of the Mergenthaler Linotype company. Three automobiles of standard make could be purchased for its cost. Operation of the machine is as complex as the workings of the human mind.

Policeman William McAmis and Deputy Sheriff William Cole rounded up a bunch of 30 men from the jungles, empty box cars and old barns at 3 o’clock Wednesday morning. The stiffs were given their choice of the road or 60 days on the chain gang.

W.C. Adams, a Garfield druggist, was placed under arrest Tuesday on the charge of selling intoxicating liquor without a license. Two separate offenses are charged in the information issued direct from superior court. Adams posted a cash bond of $500.

75 years ago

July 31, 1936

Julia Ripley accompanied her new husband, Deputy Sheriff Ralph L. Waller to Sacramento to retrieve Helen Wendell Harris - wanted here on an alleged embezzlement charge. Mrs. Harris is charged with the specific embezzlement of $70.04 from her former position as bookkeeper and disbursing officer for the Hoard Engineering Co. Waller and Ripley moved their wedding from September to last Thursday evening in order that she might serve as matron to Mrs. Harris, who wed Earl O. Harris in Seattle a month ago, on the return trip.

New and heavier copper wire to handle 110,000 volts instead of the present 60,000 has been strung on the rebuilt power line between Colfax and Pullman. Greater voltage will be run over the new lines when the new substation here is finished.

A back cat, presumably the family pet of A. J. Townsend, tourist from Kansas, seems particularly pleased to ride the radiator cap of the family’s car. The cat suddenly caught up with this new fancy in Idaho, where a stray dog chased the cat to the nearest refuge - their hood.

50 years ago

August 3, 1961

“It’s those blankety-blank Russians. They’re trying to broil us to death!” - That’s one explanation for the current warm spell, with more consecutive days registering in the 90s than any other July in memory.

The sheriff’s office is continuing investigation this week of three St. John burglaries that took place sometime Sunday night. What may have been the same team of thieves who entered firms in Rosalia and Oakesdale during the past two weeks struck Ray Schneider’s Appliance store, “Tick” Klock Drug and St. John Hardware & Implement. Hardest hit was Schenider’s, where some $1,000 in new appliances was taken. About $25 in cash and some merchandise was stolen from the drug store, with the safe cracked and narcotics taken. Appliances and $20 cash were taken from the hardware firm.

The last of the pipeliners, numbering about 15, left the area over the weekend after completing some clean up work on all of the line north of the Snake River. Awaiting movement to another job, heavy equipment from J.P. Neil Co. will be stored in a yard at Malden.

Fire destroyed Mark’s Tavern in Rosalia Sunday afternoon about five o’clock. The entire interior of the building was burned. Origin of the blaze is unknown.

25 years ago

July 31, 1986

Voters will be asked to pass a $440,000 levy to build new grandstands at the Palouse Empire Fair on the Sept. 16 ballot. The middle section of the grandstand and the entire open bleachers located north of the grandstand were condemned by county building inspector Leonard Riedner a few months before the 1985 fair. The bleachers were demolished and parts of the grandstand considered on the verge of collapse were rebuilt at an estimated cost of $3,500.

Eighteen personal injury suits have been filed during the month of July in Whitman County Superior Court, in contrast to just ten cases for the first six months of the year. As the Tort Reform Act starts Aug. 1, attorneys are scrambling to settle suits that could drastically reduce awards if filed under the state’s new law.

10 years ago

August 2, 2001

A Fairfield man led Whitman County deputies on a 15 mile chase from Tekoa to Fairfield Monday night. After observing a gray 1987 Mercury Lynx driving erratically through Tekoa, Deputy Ron McMurray tried to pull the vehicle over. The driver then ran a stop sign and drove in the wrong lane of traffic. The vehicle then nearly collided with another patrol vehicle in Latah and fled until it became disabled just south of Fairfield. The driver was arrested by Deputy McMurray without incident.

The Endicott Community Club will feature a new “Garden of the Month,” program with Paula Morasch as the first honoree. Morasch received a plant and her yard will sport the winning sign.