Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

October 20, 2010

A FUNdraising event sponsored by Sterling Savings and part of the Pomeroy Community Center-Seeley Theatre project to restore the building, will include the movie “Hocus Pocus”, and a Halloween costume contest with prizes for winners.

A fund has been established at the Bank of Whitman for the purpose of paying off the $74,000 balance on the Seeley Theater’s mortgage by October 2013, the theater’s 100th birthday.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

October 25, 1995

Pomeroy firefighters responded to a fire on Lynn Gulch, started by a pickup that eventually burned in the incident along with 39 acres of CRP grass; a fire in the Wildhorse Hill area spread from a thistle-burning project along a fence row that burned 20 acres of pasture; and a vehicle fire east of the Alpowa summit involving a van pulling a camp trailer. The van was destroyed but the trailer was saved.

Parents for a Safe Halloween Alternative are planning a Fall Family Carnival Oct. 31 in the Catholic School auditorium featuring 12 different activities, games and crafts for students pre-school through elementary school age.

Fifty Years Ago

October 22, 1970

A generous $4,000 donation by Mrs. W.B. Morris and Mr. and Mrs. Harold Shepherd has paid off the remainder due on the recently purchased site of the future museum building. Seattle architect and county native Richard Cardwell volunteered to draw up plans for the building and donate them to the association.

The largest barge ever to come into either side of the Port of Central Ferry is scheduled for loading at the Pomeroy Grain Growers elevators. Manager Merle Baldwin said the barge will hold 100,000 bushels of grain.

Lester Trescott carried the mail on Route No. 1 down into the Tucannon valley for 42 years. The first eleven years he drove Model Ts in the summer and a team of horses in the winter. He used seventeen cars during his time on the route, each car going sixty thousand miles or more.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

October 25, 1945

The automotive public that has not seen a new car since the war will get the first opportunity to view 1946 Fords on Friday, V-8 day, when Butler Motor Company will have the 1946 model on display. Mr. Butler stated that it is now nearly four years since he has had a new automobile to offer the public.

Eugene Garrett of Pasco has leased room in the Seeley Theatre building and will open a photo studio specializing in fine portraits, commercial photography, copying, coloring and framing photographs.

Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company informed the E.W. that it will only be short time until all who have made applications for telephone service in Pomeroy will be provided with the same. During the war it was impossible to add new patrons to their system.

The Secretary of Agriculture says, “Despite Victory Used Fat Saving Must Go On!” Every woman in America should know that our country continues to face a serious fat shortage and victory over Japan won’t solve the problem immediately. We must keep on saving used fats in our kitchens!

One Hundred Years Ago

October 23, 1920

The annual high school stunt show will be divided into two divisions; humorous on the lower floor and instructive on the second. Pupils having no class last period of the day are excused at 2:45 because the study hall is needed for a recitation.

The last week before the opening football game with Waitsburg finds Coach Daniel running his charges through an hour of hard scrimmage daily. Waitsburg, having walloped Milton to the tune of 90 to 0, is crying for more blood. Besides handicapping the local squad with an average weight of two pounds more to the man, Waitsburg also has the advantage of longer experience, and student observers express little hope for a victory for the Pomeroy boys.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

October 19, 1895

E.M. Rauch and Robt. Tidwell narrowly escaped what might have proven a very serious accident Wednesday morning. They were driving out to Pataha Flat, and when going up the grade, just above the old Benjamin place, their horse took fright at some calves that came running down the road. The buggy was jerked off the grade and turned over against a barb-wire fence, upon which the men were hurled with considerable force. Had the horse not been kept under control the men would have received serious, and perhaps fatal, injuries. As it was they were pretty badly scratched up and their clothing was torn to shreds. However, they managed in some way to make a presentable toilet and resumed their journey, Ed. says, but little the worse for the mishap.