Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Oct. 25, 1889

Particulars of the horse and wagon theft committed at Palouse City on Tuesday of last week develop some interesting facts.

The young man who swore out the warrant for the arrest of the alleged "stranger" whom he had "given a lift" to town turns out to have been an accomplice of the "stranger" and that the horse and wagon belonged in Walla Walla from whence it had been stolen by the two a few days before.

Reaching Palouse City with the stolen property the elder of the two men took advantage of the other's absence from the wagon and drove off in post haste for Idaho, stopping at Farmington long enough to dispose of the horses and wagon to a livery man there.

Both have been arrested and taken to Moscow for trial.

Governor Moore is preparing his annual report to the secretary of the interior. He says: "I think the total population of the territory is now over 250,000. Governor Semple's report for last year shows that the population in 1888 166,982. This would make the increase about 82,018. There is also a marked increase in the amount of taxable property. The amount of land brought under cultivation in the past year is large, and the wealth producing area has been greatly increased. Washington was never more prosperous than she has been during the past year."

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Oct. 23, 1914

If you fail to attend the supper, sale and dance to be given by the Catholic ladies of Colfax next Thursday afternoon and evening, you will miss the event of the season. Nothing that will contribute to the success of the affair will be left undone and everybody is invited. It will be held at K. of P. hall.

William Aschenbrenner has sold his large land holdings near Endicott to Peter Bafus and left Tuesday morning for Morgan, Ore., where he has purchased several hundred acres of land and will make his home.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Oct. 20, 1939

Withstanding her insults to a point beyond endurance, Officer Clayton Litzenberger Saturday night arrested Mrs. Byron deWilde, stenographer for a grain cooperative company at Pendelton, in a local cafe on a charge of drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Mrs. deWilde had vociferously protested the arrest of her husband, manager of a cooperative oil company, earlier in the day on a reckless driving charge, and had been warned by Chief Jim Hickman "to keep her mouth shut." Their plan to attend the football game in Pullman came to an abrupt end when deWilde crashed into gutter barricades on the newly paved highway, badly damaging his car, which was repaired here.

Pleading guilty to a speeding charge in S.M. McCroskey's justice court Monday, Sam Corisis, 21, Spokane, paid a fine of $20 and costs of $3.50. Doing 80 miles an hour on Saturday on the Pullman road, he told Deputy Sheriff Walt Nicely that he was in a hurry to get to Pullman before the Washington State College football game started in hope of getting a job as lineman. He said he was without the price of admission to the game, and having been on Coach Jimmy Phalen's squad at the U. he believed the grid tutor would find a job for him on the sidelines.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Oct. 22, 1964

Joe Myers, Colfax, recently plowed this 800-foot Goldwater sign in a field alongside the Colfax-Steptoe highway about one-half mile south of the Garfield turnoff. The letters are over 100 feet high and are about 10 feet apart. Myers said he plowed the sign in a stubble field in protest against the Johnson administration's wheat policy. "They're not trying to solve farm problems; but are creating new ones to back the farmer into a corner and force him to accept complete control."

In a photo, this rock, about three feet square and two feet thick, made a shambles of the bathroom of the Don McClintock house on Deanway about 4:45 p.m.

on Sunday when it rolled down the hill for abut 150 feet, struck a stump and hurdled through the back wall of the McClintock home across the bathroom and into the kitchen.

Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. McClintock and their three children (including Lorie pictured with the rock) were hunting.

The wash basin and toilet bowl were shattered into small pieces and the tub was badly damaged as was the back of the refrigerator in the adjoining kitchen.

Water escaping from the ruptured pipes also caused considerable damage.

Loss was covered by insurance.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Oct. 26, 1989

Details of a paving project for walkways at the fairgrounds and more museum news were on the table Monday night at the Palouse Empire Fiar board session. The fair has signed Poe Asphalt, contractor on the Highway 26 project next to the fair to pave walkways at the grounds. Bob Reynolds, fair operations manager, said a $9,132 bid had been approved by the fair's executive board for the project.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Oct. 21, 2004

Haunted Palouse corn maze volunteers had to get creative to save the maze when plans came up short – literally. Some of the corn grew no taller than a foot. Norm Schorzman and Shawn Buckendahl brought a truckload of full-grown corn stalks to the downtown Palouse site for recreating the maze walls. They pounded posts into the ground, outlined the maze with orange cord and tied the donated stalks to the cord.