Good Old Days: April 4, 2019

125 years ago

The Commoner, March 30 1895, 1890

The work train on the Colfax division of the Union Pacific was stationary in the yards all day last Friday and Saturday. Not a pick was struck in the ditches. At 7 O'clock Friday morning, when Roadmaster William Bollons reaches the Colfax depot, he found the laborers who had gone out on Thursday's worktrain, to the number of about 25, standing idly around, and with their picks and shovels strewn about on the ground.

“What's the matter with you men?” asked the roadmaster.

“We don't propose to work for $1.40 a day,” said one of the crew.

“Then you don't have to go to work,” was the response. “This is the regular pay, and there are plenty of men who will work for that figure.

It was the first genuine strike in Colfax.

***

County Assessor J.E. Bishop has applied the knife to last year's assessment rates and for a beginning has scaled down the assessed valuation of stock nearly fifty per cent. His action should be an example to assessors of other counties and it will be generally and heartily commended and approved by the people of Whitman County.

In his instructions to his field deputies, Assessor Bishop has requested that all stock be valued at full fair price, according to the present market valuations.

***

Deputy Internal Revenue Collector John Nestor completed his labors registering the Chinese in Colfax Tuesday morning. His estimate of the number of celestials in the city fell somewhat short of his findings. It has been commonly thought here that Colfax contained some forty Chinese, but Deputy Nestor registered a total 105. Pullman has 20 Chinese. The city of Spokane has over 20. The city of Colfax

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner, March 28, 1919

The daylight saving law which was passed by the recent congress is still in force and the new time under the law is to go into effect Sunday morning.

The trains will start an hour earlier, the government offices will open an hour earlier and all government workers will begin their work one hour earlier. The law was passed in order to aid the clerks and business men in producing a garden last year and in the year of the debate on the League of Nations, the law was forgotten as was many other obnoxious laws and it was allowed to remain on the statue books for the people to observe this year. The government offices and the trains schedules will be regulated by the new time table which begins at 12 p.m. Saturday night.

***

George Moller made a complaint to the officers this week in regard to the careless manner in which squirrel hunters do their shooting. This is the second complaint this spring and in both cases a spent bullet crashed though a window pane within a few inches of the head of the household.

The bullet had been fired from a distance and it was nearly spent when it struck the window. It is thought that the shot was fired by some squirrel hunter and that no harm was intended to Mr. Moller. The bullet had force enough to cause a serious injury had is struck Mr. Moller in the head and officers have issued warning that no one should fire from the tops of hills in the direction of the city.

***

The capital stock of the Security State Bank of La Crosse was increased to $30,000 and seventy new stockholders hold bank stock in the new institution. The bank was established in the fall of 1914 by J. E. Moore and from the date the bank opened, its doors, it proved to be a popular financial institution. Recently it was decided to make the bank a farmers' institution and seventy of the best known farmers in the western part of the county immediately took advantage of the opportunity to secure stock in this progressive, growing institution.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner, March 31, 1944

Selective service during the past week furnished 15 Whitman County men to the armed forces, the army inducting 11 Monday and the navy four Saturday.

***

The Bulldog boxing squad closed its season with a draw against Garfield Friday night in the local gymnasium. Colfax won four decisions, lost four and earned one draw.

Ward Morton started the Colfax winning by decisioning Harold Pfaff in a close opener.

Bud Stravens, although out-weighed by 16 pounds by a south paw, Bill Humphrey, won a clear-cut decision through his clean punching and aggressiveness.

***

With detailed plans worked out to assist with the 1944 farm labor program in Washington, Arthur F. Kulin, state agricultural extension service farm labor supervisor, has begun a statewide tour to help get the program under way in counties.

The extension service will set up and operate employment offices where necessary throughout the state to take orders for and make farm labor placements. Farm labor committees made up of community agricultural leader were set up last year in the counties and these groups will again carry much of the load in recruiting local labor for harvest.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette, March 27, 1969

Inspection of Schmuck park athletic and picnic areas and the Colfax municipal pool was made Tuesday afternoon by representatives of the State Interagency Committee on Outdoor Recreation. Two field inspectors checked the park and pool to rate a City of Colfax fund application for improving the site. Dick Pratt, Olympia, headed the inspection team for the funding committee.

A package plan which includes landscaping the Colfax municipal pool and improving he park athletic facilities will be sent to the state committee with a request for a fund grant. A preliminary plan was presented at the last city council meeting by John Aylor, Spokane architect.

***

Penawawa's orchards, which were removed two years ago to make way for the Little Goose dam reservoir, made news again last week in U.S. District court at Spokane. Ken E. Wallace, former Penawawa ranched was awarded a $9,200 judgement for damages sustained by apple and pear trees from railroad right-of-way spraying operations. A jury of two women and ten men deliberated four hours before returning the judgement to conclude the four-day trial.

The judgment was against the Union Pacific Railroad, Camas Prairie Railroad and the Malco Chemical Co. Wallace was represented by D. L. McMannis, Pullman attorney.

He had filed for $10,000 suit against the railroads for damages to the blooms on the 1965 apple and pear crop. Wallace stated the railroad's weed spraying operation damaged the blooms, causing a loss of crop value. The case was first filed in Whitman County superior court and later moved to the U.S. district court on motion of the defense.

***

Storage tanks, a station approach and parking area will occupy the space which will merge with demolition of the former Eastep's Motor Garage building on Main street. George Cook, manager of the Standard Oil Station located on the north side of the building, said the petroleum firm had purchased the site which has been occupied by the garage building for over 50 years.

Eastep, who now works in the repair department of Hofstand Motors in Pullman, closed the operation at the garage last November after 37 years of business on the site. The building, constructed between 1910 and 1912, was occupied by early-day automotive firms.

***

A bullet crashed through the porch window of the Thornton home owned by Mrs. Anson Patterson Friday. Sheriff C. A. (Mike) Humphreys said Ernest Weitman reported the shooting about 11 a.m.

Deputy Pat Lally found a .45 caliber bullet in the porch wall. Sheriff Humphreys said he believed the bullet was probably fired by a passing motorist.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette, April 7, 1994

The Whitman County Courthouse bargaining unit signed the agreement for the two percent pay raise, but not without some harsh words for the commissioners about the negotiations process and the large raises given to four department heads.

“We feel we cannot honorably and justifiably refuse to now sign this contract, despite the shock, unhappiness and even anger many of our members over the large and unexpected wage increases given several top managers,” wrote Frank White, bargaining unit president, in a letter to the commissioners.

Throughout the budget process last year, the commissioners said stagnant revenues and rising costs to the county were going to affect the amount of money available for pay raises.