Good Ol' Days

125 Years Ago

From the Colfax Gazette, Friday, January 6, 1899

HEAD ROLLED AWAY

Conductor Gilbert Decapitated By a Car Wheel

Fell With His Neck Across a Rail and Was Caughty by a Wheel

Conductor Henry L. Gilbert of the Spokane & Palouse train from Pullman to Genessee, was beheaded at the Pullman yards about 10 o’clock Saturday morning by a car wheel of his train. His head was cut as squarely off as it would have been possible with a guillotine. His son, Emery Gilbert, who was a brakeman on the same train, was standing near and witnessed the tragic happening.

Conductor Gilbert’s train was a mixed one, and in making it up in the yards the conductor jumped up on a flat car while a flying switch was being made and set the brake. The car platform was icy and as he attempted to leave the car slipped and fell with his neck squarely across the rail. The slowly turning wheel caught him fairly across the neck and his head rolled from his body in plain sight of a number of witnesses. He was not marked elsewhere. The dead man was a resident of Spokane, where he left a divorced wife and had been on the run where he met his death for several years.

75 Years Ago

From the Colfax Gazette-Commoner, Thursday, January 6, 1949

Local Patrolman Promised Colfax

Colfax will definitely have a resident state patrolman by Feb. 1 and Rosalia may also receive one, according to Capt. W. T. Horn of the Washington State Patrol district office in Spokane.

Capt. Horn hopes state headquarters in Olympia will transfer two men to this area, in which case Colfax will again have a resident patrolman while the other will be assigned to Rosalia to cover that area.

Patrolman Roy Gilbert will continue to work from Pullman.

Should no transfer be forthcoming from Olympia, Capt. Horn said he would assign a district patrolman to Colfax by Feb. 1. Horn declared the district was shorthanded, with four men in the hospital or recuperating at present. Some counties in the fourth district are without resident patrolmen, he indicated.

50 Years Ago

From the Colfax Gazette, Thursday, January 3, 1974

Local firms get North Pacific Grain Growers dividends

Bill Bell, right, president of North Pacific Grain Growers, hands out dividend checks earned transactions with county firms over the past year. Receiving the checks, left to right are Larry Crownell, manager of Whitman County Growers; Marshall Miller, manager of Oakesdale Grain Growers; Byron Schmick, president of Wheat Growers of Endicott; and LeRoy Schaefer, WGE manager. Schmick’s new hat is replacement for the one he threw into the combine at harvest finish.

25 Years Ago

From the Whitman County Gazette, Thursday, January 7, 1999

County switches port road names

A name switch between Central Ferry and Hopkins Way roads at the Port of Central Ferry was approved by county commissioners Monday after a public hearing. Businesses at the port had requested the change because the road signs were the opposite of what the names were on the county map. The public works department became aware of the problem at the end of October.

Businesses had requested the county switch the names on the county map, rather than on the roads, because they were already getting their mail at the addresses according to the street signs.

Public works officials have said they don’t know how or when the mixup happened.

10 Years Ago

From the Whitman County Gazette, Thursday, January 2, 2014

Two arrested for burglaries

Sheriff Brett Myers Monday reported the arrest of two suspects after investigation of a rash of burglaries and break-ins in the northern part of the county over the past few months. The sheriff said deputies have investigated several leads and checked out other suspects in the series of cases.

Kenneth L. Himes, 34, was arrested early Sunday morning at his home in Tekoa as a suspect in the burglaries. Lance H. Garett, 35, Tensed, was also identified as a suspect and is expected to face charges in Benewah County for possession of stolen property. The sheriff said additional property is expected to be recovered from others who may be arrested as the investigation continues.