Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

August 4, 2010

After 14 years in Pomeroy, Pastor Frank Musgrave of Pomeroy Christian Church, and his wife Virginia, are retiring and moving to Turner, Ore.

County Commissioners accepted the low bid of $1,254,900 submitted by Wellens Farwell, Inc. for the initial work on the renovation of Courthouse.

Fire crews were kept busy last week, responding to a harvest field fire, two lightning-caused field fires and a hay-truck fire believed to have been started by the truck exhaust as it pulled the 20-ton load up the steep Columbia Center grade.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

August 9, 1995

Elton Brown could be turning Pataha into the next primitive farm-art capital of the West with his large “sickle-saurus” and shark sculptures created using thousands of combine or swather sickle sections.

School Board selected Terry Brandon of the Cheney School District as the new superintendent.

Fifty Years Ago

August 6, 1970

Complaints, requests and misgivings regarding future city activities were part of the agenda when 25 visitors crowded into the small city hall to voice their feelings to the mayor and council, including a protested landfill site, the Crescent Drive water pressure problem, some city swine owners who thought enforcing of the “no pig” ordinance was somewhat unfair, and that very little about the new dance ordinance was liked by the Jaycees or members of local bands.

Twin City Construction of Clarkston won the bid award of $33,000 for improvement work on the athletic field that will include a cinder track, six-foot cyclone fence, pits and station for all track and field events, and two Little League ballfields and backstops.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

August 2, 1945

The Jaycee’s annual Harvest Festival and Fair has been set for September 14-15. Since war conditions have kept all people closer home than usual, the JCs plan to put on the best fair so far attempted by the organization. Exhibits of various kinds will include: livestock, grains, fruits, fancy work and many other items of general interest, reports Wynn Stallcop, Jaycee president.

The country home of Mr. and Mrs. Thiron Crawford, eight miles southwest of Pomeroy, and practically all of its contents consisting of household goods, furniture and clothing, was destroyed by fire last Thursday.

Up to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday an estimated 900 Garfield County automobile drivers renewed their driver’s licenses for the next two years. Over 200 licenses were sold Tuesday. It is estimated there are at least 300 delinquent licenses. To renew your license, take your old license receipt to the sheriff’s office with $2 in cash and a renewal receipt will be issued promptly.

One Hundred Years Ago

August 7, 1920

After dropping to $2.08 on Saturday, the Chicago wheat market rebounded to $2.29 this week. It is said one grower got scared and sold at $1.95 in Pomeroy Saturday. The price of good wheat is about $2.04 in Pomeroy today.

Turkey red wheat on E.C. Cluster’s farm northwest of town is of fine quality and the yield is estimated at 30 bushels or more. Forty-fold grown along the bank of the river at the Weller place yielded 35 bushels an acre.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

August 3, 1895

The gaming season opened Aug. 1st, and the Prairie chicken crop, which is said to be unusually large this season, is now ready for the harvest.

Geo. Light’s 130 acres of summer-fallow gives promise of a splendid yield, considering the general crop conditions. George says it is better than the crop of two years ago, and will turn out something like 35 bushels to the acre.

Mr. and Mrs. G.L. Campbell started for the sheep camp over on the Grande Ronde river. They went as far as Teal’s summer resort by team, and the balance of the journey, some 30 or 40 miles over the mountain was made on horseback.

The grasshoppers are doing a great deal of damage to gardens, corn and everything that is green. It is feared that unless they leave, there will be no late garden or corn raised in the Pataha Flat vicinity, but as the majority of them now have wings, great hopes are entertained that they will leave.

Gypsies reluctantly paid Peola merchant J.P. Moore $8.00 after he filed a claim. When Sheriff Ellis Powell caught up to them, they said the bill was settled by telling his fortune. Marshall McBrearty had been keeping an eye on the dusky travelers to see that nothing stuck to their fingers as they passed through Pomeroy earlier.