Good Old Days: June 20, 2019

125 years ago

Weekly Commoner

June 22, 1894

The first commencement exercises of the Agricultural College were held Tuesday evening in the Auditorium at Pullman. Hon. H. S. Blandford, of Walla Walla, delivered the oration to the graduating class of the preparatory school, taking “Students” for the subject of his address. Mr. Blandford said, in part: “The student is one who studies, not one who is studied.”

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After the most important and profitable convention in its history, extending over three days, at the First Baptist Church of Colfax, the Palouse Baptist Association adjourned on Sunday evening last.

100 years ago

June 13, 1919

Colfax Commoner

A crowd of eighty students from the Saint John high school passed through Colfax Saturday morning in automobiles on their way to Lewiston, Idaho, where they enjoyed a picnic dinner.

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The State College lost five gallons of alcohol from its laboratory Saturday, and two students, both ex-soldiers, were arrested on a warrant charged with the crime.

The arrest of the two men has caused considerable comment among the people of the county, who were unaware that the college authorities were so careless with the use of their alcohol.

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Last Friday evening, three students were granted high school diplomas after completing their four-year course in the St. Scholastica’s Academy at Colton. The Rev. Father Cronin of Rosalia delivered the commencement address to the graduates.

75 years ago

June 9, 1944

Colfax-Gazette Commoner

With the presentation of a petition signed by property owners willing to stand half the cost, the city council Monday evening adopted a resolution to build a sewer line on Bellinger street and for the purpose of the improvement to create a local improvement district.

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The Colfax war finance committee headed by A.M. Michaelsen, will put on an intense 10-hour drive Saturday of this week to bring the community’s sales well along toward the $875,000 that has been set as the fifth war loan quota.

50 years ago

June 12, 1969

Colfax Gazette

Nine members of the House Agriculture Committee, largest Congressional delegation ever to come to Whitman County, will investigate wheat farming here next Thursday, June 19, in a bus tour across the county.

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Solid testimony asking for $18 million to resume work on Lower Granite dam was given by the Inland Empire Waterways delegation to Senate and House public works subcommittees in Washington, D.C., last week.

They emphasize to the congressmen that if work isn’t resumed soon, that the $42 million already spent for surveys and the coffer dam might be “literally washed away.”

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Colton’s school board faces two $10,000 damage suits which were filed in Whitman County superior court Tuesday by two Colton faculty members.

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An unidentified motorist, Colfax patrolman and Colfax volunteers teamed early Monday morning to save the lives of 1,400 pheasant game chicks at the Ervin Stritzke ranch. The two-week -old chicks were being raised for the game department.

The motorist spotted smoke coming from the Stritzke’s brooder house located three miles north of Colfax on the Spokane highway.

25 years ago

June 16, 1994

Whitman County Gazette

As strange as it may seem, it is no laughing matter. There’s a canola prowler on the loose. Someone, or some group, removed an entire plot of research canola from an Intermountain Canola test site near Steptoe, and the Whitman County Sheriff’s office is treating the theft as a felony case.

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A call for a design consultant for an addition to Whitman Hospital and Medical Center has been issued by the hospital’s board. The request seeks a designer for an estimated 4,000 square foot addition to the hospital building.

“I think it’s important for people to understand that this is not something we’re doing for the doctors; it’s something we’re doing with the doctors. We’re working together to benefit the community,” Marlene Landers, head of the hospital board, said.

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Colfax Problem Solving teams returned Tuesday from a whirlwind tour of the University of Michigan. According to chaperone Sharon Hall, the teams got away from the University of Michigan campus 20 minutes before officials there made everyone take cover in the bomb shelters because there was a tornado in the area.

10 years ago

June 18, 2009

Whitman County Gazette

The glamour and hurrah of the circus touched down in Whitman County over the past week, with a one-ring hit in Palouse Friday and a three-ring affair in Colfax Tuesday night.

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Six Colfax school district employees most likely will be laid off, after they were informed on the last day of school, June 9, that their hours for the next year were not guaranteed.

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Whitman County commissioners Monday agreed to lease a piece of land beneath the east hill of Colfax to the Port of Whitman for construction of a carport behind the Port’s office on Mill Street.

The lease lasts indefinitely and will cost the port nothing.

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The site of the historic Wise Hardware building that went up in flames May 26, has been sold. Little remains of the brick building except several blackened outer walls, several piles of bricks and a water-filled basement full of burned materials, including the shell of an old car.