Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

April 18, 1890

In Sprague, the saloon of R. Winter was burglarized and $100 was taken from the safe. The amount of goods taken is not known. The burglar entered the saloon by forcing the back door.

A pink tea party was given last night and was largely attended. Someone turned off the electric lights and stole numerous overcoats and hats, making it necessary for several of the young men to go home bareheaded.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

April 16, 1915

The decided and popular innovation of directories is published by the Merchant-Maher Company of Montana and Mr. Merchant is here this week and is preparing to get out a directory for this county. The names of farmers alone are listed together with valuable information regarding the location of his land, distance from town, kind of farming and what he has to sell.

The debating championship for Whitman County has been awarded to Winona. Endicott was second, and Rosalia and Oakesdale tied for third.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

April 19, 1940

Mrs. Nadine Klock, Colfax, was sworn into office by Deputy County Auditor Kenneth McNeilly as a deputy county sheriff who will do special work on cases involving delinquent juvenile girls. Mrs. Klock, who was a home visitor with the county welfare department from September 1937, until her recent resignation.

Inexperienced as a trap shooter before this season, Miss Elizabeth McSweeney, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles McSweeney and freshman at the State college, broke 21 out of 25 blue rocks to defeat her father who scored only 20. They were shooting on the range of the Colfax Gun Club.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

April 22, 1965

Flood control operations came to a sudden halt Monday when the South Palouse River climbed about three feet, enough to keep workers out of the river. A log blasting mat in the river bottom at the time was carried downstream when heavy rains raised the flow of the river and chased about 12 men off the job.

A fire of undetermined origin, discovered by someone passing through Thornton Sunday, leveled Jan’s Cafe operated for the past six years by Mrs. Augie Claussen.

Upwards of 300 men will be employed by the end of this year on the construction of Little Goose Dam near Riparia and Lower Granite Dam near Almota and steadily increasing employment over the next few years, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

April 19, 1990

Colfax city funding for the Codger Pole project was approved at $500 at the council session. The sum is far short of the $2,500 asked by John Crawford, originator of the 1988 Codger Bowl and the subsequent Codger Pole project.

Whitman County Planning Commission finally put the Pullman-Moscow Enterprise Zone plan to rest last week, approving a plan that would allow a hospital on the highway between the two universities.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

April 21, 2005

County commissioners approved a nearly $24,000 contract between Whitman County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The money will pay for the sheriff’s department’s boat patrol program on the Snake River. The contract calls for a total of 288 hours of boat patrol on the river from the confluence at Clarkston to Lyons Ferry. The patrol will be in operation from Memorial Day until Labor Day.

From the beginning in a former Colfax tavern to its present 13 branch offices with state of the art computer systems, Whitman County Library District has seen its share of changes over the years. November marked the 65th anniversary of the library’s inception in 1944 and library staff will celebrate the occasion by taking a van tour of former bookmobile routes.

Cyclists will be lapping the Palouse hills this Saturday for a portion of the 2005 Northwest Collegiate Cycling Conference Championships. The racers will clip to their pedals at Palouse City Park and take a 23-mile loop.