Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

January 6, 2010

The former Pataha jail was moved 50 meters or so from behind the home of Pataha Flour Mills founder John Houser to a spot just in front of the mill building. The jail was constructed about the time the mill was built in the late 1870s and originally located on Montgomery St. in Pataha, amidst the bars that proliferated in the early days when Pataha was the county seat.

Puget Sound Energy Foundation gave a $3,000 donation to the Pomeroy School District for its After School Program.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 11, 1995

Pomeroy city council voted 5-2 by secret ballot to utilize a commercial hauler to pick up garbage in the city and take it to the Asotin landfill.

A tree falling and ruining an open-front shelter at Teal Springs campground led to a combined effort by the Mt. Misery Drifters snowmobile club and the Pomeroy Ranger District’s resource office to construct a new, bigger shelter at the site.

A “worst case scenario” budget approved by Garfield County Hospital District avoids the need for a levy.

Fifty Years Ago

January 8, 1970

Social Security beneficiaries in the Pomeroy area will receive a 15 percent increase in checks beginning in April.

Pomeroy basketball fans get an extra treat when a college game between the Walla Walla Community College Warriors and the University of Idaho frosh will be played in the Pomeroy high school gym. Making arrangements for the contest was Pomeroy native Don Parker, WWCC head basketball coach.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

January 11, 1945

Pomeroy’s high school boxing team plays host to the Blue Devils from Walla Walla in the first of a series of eight smokers scheduled for the 1945 season in the local gym.

Some farmers are fearful that the lack of snow in the mountains will be the cause for an even greater shortage of water than was experienced in parts of the county the past year. Several farmers, particularly in the Peola district, are still hauling water as the result of their wells and spring having gone dry. To date not enough snow has fallen in Pomeroy to cover the ground and snowfall in the mountains has been very light.

The new 28-passenger school bus was put into service last week over the Ping-Wild Horse route, the longest at 75 miles a day, to serve 26 school children residing in that district. The second longest route, also serving 26 students, covers 68 miles a day to the Lynn Gulch district. The shortest route covers 16 miles, to the Fallings Springs section and serves four students. 13 school buses make trips to all sections of the county.

Commencing January 1, 1945, barber services in Pomeroy will be increased, haircut from 50 cents to 65 cents and a shave from 25 cents to 35 cents. Pomeroy barbers have held their prices down to the pre-war levels while practically all towns in the Inland Empire boosted their charges months ago, some even setting the figures at $1 for a haircut and 50 cents for a shave.

One Hundred Years Ago

January 13, 1920

Two meetings of former students of the Pomeroy high school were held in the high school building last week, and organized an alumni association. Wayne Davis was elected president. It is estimated that there are about 120 persons in Garfield County now eligible for membership in the association. A vigorous campaign will be instituted to secure complete membership before the end of the present school year.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 12, 1895

The washouts caused by the freshets at this time of year makes railroading dangerous. It were better to run slower trains if safety if assured thereby. But this fast American people want to be killed off, if killed they must be, with dispatch. So they grumble at anything less than 40 miles an hour, danger or no danger.

N. Berkley certainly carries the palm as the boss goose slayer among our local nimrods. He killed five wild geese at one shot on the Snake River the other day, and then exhibited the game as proof of his success. Goose hunters will notice that this item differs from our regulation style of goose reports in the important particular that Mr. B. exhibited the game as proof of his triumph, whereas the time-honored custom observed by all true sportsmen, has been to sneak in home after dark, secrete the fowls, and tell about the slaughter the next day. Prominent members of the “Goose Hunters’ Society of Garfield County,” are very indignant at the violation of one of the most sacred rules of the organization, and it is hinted that Mr. Berkley will be expelled without delay.