Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

January 26, 2011

Pomeroy Community Center received a $5,000 grant from the Pacific Power Foundation for the restoration and preservation of the Seeley Theatre and Opera House and will be used to fund a portion of the roof installation.

Voters in Pomeroy School District will be asked to approve a $661,076, one-year replacement maintenance and operations levy in the February election.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 31, 1996

The newly formed Pomeroy High School Drama Club will present two one-act plays, “Roomers” and “It’s Cold in Them Thar Hills,” next week in the high school cafetorium. The plays offer audiences hilarious comedy and will be the first high school student production since the old high school was torn down and the first time in over 20 years that the high school has had a drama club.

A tire chip roadbed on a county road west of Pomeroy is giving new meaning to the phrase “burning up the road,” because the fill material is literally burning. Last year the county road department used 6-inch to 8-inch tire chips to till part of the roadbed on Falling Springs Road. Settlement cracks were first noticed in the road surface in October and since that time, the roadbed has been occasionally venting steam or smoke and flames have been visible at times.

Fifty Years Ago

January 28, 1971

“What a gooey mess, man!” commented one Job Corpsman as he surveyed the cleanup job at the city wading pool. In training to become a heavy equipment operator, he learned that sometimes heavy equipment comes in the form of a shovel and the power used is hand power. The consistency of the muck in the pool made buckets more useful than shovels.

A grain elevator was destroyed and the roof of the plant damaged when a guy wire broke and a 57-foot elevator fell over on the Scott Seed plant on Kuhl Ridge road.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

January 24, 1946

The Kansas City Stars and their traveling companion, Olympic champion Jesse Owens, an internationally known figure in athletics, put on a fine show before a packed house in the high school gymnasium and gave the spectators their money’s worth. The Stars managed to keep the score throughout the game at a 2 to 1 rate over the Jaycee team with apparent ease. The final score was 57 to 30. Jesse Owens, besides demonstrating his ability as a runner, also gave a short talk between halves. The crowd was the largest to see a basketball game in the local gym so far this year.

Approximately 50,000 bushels of grain and a $40,000 storage elevator were destroyed when fire consumed the Columbia County Grain Growers Whetstone grain elevator seven miles north of Dayton. No cause of the fire has yet been determined but officials said the top of the elevator was blown off indicating it might have started from combustion.

One Hundred Years Ago

January 29, 1921

Tentative plans are underway for the erection of a two-story brick rectory to be built this spring on the lot adjoining the Catholic church.

Mrs. George Watson was in town Saturday, having ridden on horseback from her ranch on upper Tucannon, a distance of 18 miles. Even in the days of Indian trails and “cayuse” ponies, this trip would have been regarded as something more than a mid-winter holiday jaunt.

According to the annual report of Dr. John Gilbert, there were 74 births in Garfield County during 1920. In 1918, the record birth year, 116 babies were born and in 1919, the number was an even 100. This shows a decrease in the birth rate of over 30 percent, compared to the previous two years, while the death roll for the corresponding years shows an increase almost as great.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 25, 1896

Our California winter arrived home a few days ago, and is now doing business at the old stand, and the polar zephyrs that have been paying Eastern Wash. their respects have returned to their native clime.

Elder F. Walden will by request defer his lecture on Evolution to Sunday night, Feb. 2. Next Sunday night he will address young men on common sense, moral sense, business sense and marriage sense. All are invited.

When the dogs are muzzled it would be a good idea to also muzzle the loafers who hang around the corners and public places with nothing to do except to “sick” dogs on each other and howl with delight as the combat goes on. These chaps are a greater nuisance than the dogs and have less sense than their canine superiors.

Sidney Richardson has built himself a fine cutter. All he wants now is lots of snow and plenty of pretty girls.

Ansel Smith has bought a buggy. Our young men are going to make it pleasant for the ladies whether we have snow or sunshine.

J.Q. Stretch has purchased a sleigh and is waiting and watching for the snow to fall so he can sleigh ride. Look out ladies!