Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

May 11, 2011

EIghteen wind turbines completed as of last week for the Puget Sound Energy project are scheduled to begin operation in the first quarter of 2012.

Garfield County Information & Assistance will hold a yard clean-up day for senior and disabled residents.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

May 15, 1996

The Garfield County Health Foundation made a $3,500 contribution toward the purchase of a new ultrasound machine for Garfield County Memorial Hospital’s physical therapy department.

School superintendent Terry Brandon believes “the real selling point” to approve the bond issue up for vote next week is the state matching funds the district would receive.

Pomeroy Pump Up the Pulse Bike Challenge race this year is a 40-mile hilly loop on low traffic, paved roads northeast of Pomeroy.

Fifty Years Ago

May 13, 1971

County voters turned down a request for a three-mil, $80,000 excess school levy in Pomeroy.

Lester and Marie Geiger and family, operating as L&M Ranch, are the recipients of this year’s Garfield County Cattleman of the Year award.

An outbreak of dog poisonings has again occurred in Pomeroy. At least four dogs have been killed in the last two weeks.

Temporary rates raise the price of a first-class stamp from 6 to 8 cents, air-mail from 10 to 11 cents, and postcards from 5 to 6 cents.

Over 140 rattlesnakes have already been found and killed in the Pomeroy area by snake hunters this spring.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

May 9, 1946

O.K. Rubber Welders has opened in the Becker Building on East Main Street. The firm will do tire recapping and repairing, and features infra-ray rubber welding. The equipment and machinery is new and of the latest type, driven with individual electric motors.

The last of 2,700 acres of Green Giant peas were seeded Sunday in the Peola district by Blue Mountain Canneries.

O.C. Bartlow and his son, Ellsworth, have signed a contract for the Kaiser-Frazier line of automobiles and other merchandise the firm will manufacture for Garfield County.

Garfield County Road Department will replace the old Philomathean timber bridge on Sweeney Gulch Road with a new bridge to cost $3,025. The two main items in the construction cost as 25 cubic yards of concrete, $1,000; 40 lineal feet of 120-inch diameter culvert, $1,040. Work on the bridge is to start May 18; estimated date of completion, June 15.

One Hundred Years Ago

May 14, 1921

A peculiarly pathetic double fatality occurred Tuesday when ten-year-old Ivan Hovrud and six-year-old Hattie Howard drowned in the Tucannon stream as a result of the collapse of the footbridge near the power plant of the Pacific Power & Light company. A number of Marengo schoolchildren were on the bridge when it fell and some of the youngsters were romping around on the bridge, while others shook it, causing it to swing and break down.

James and Henry Baker, brothers, of Lewiston, are in jail here, pending a probable charge of burglary. Sheriff W.H. Dixon believes he has evidence that one or both of these men robbed the Kidwell-Dixon clubhouse, the Cardwell store and the Meyers hardware store. Two suits of clothes, two hats, a suitcase and other articles and money was taken from Cardwell’s, while Meyers hardware lost a revolver, a rifle, nine boxes of cartridges and a pocket knife. Henry Baker, 18, younger of the two, confessed to the thefts after some of the clubhouse loot was found at the home of Winfrey Williams, where James Baker was staying.

An even two dozen young men and women, twelve boys and twelve girls, will graduate from Pomeroy high school on Thursday, May 19.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

May 9, 1896

Commencement exercises for twelve graduates of the Pomeroy High Shool will take place at the opera house, Thursday evening, May 28.

Joe Miles will have a horse-power thresher and do his own threshing this year, after which he will thresh for others who prefer a horse-power.

The snowstorm last Saturday at Falling Springs was remarkable in respect to the extremely large flakes, which for size surpassed anything ever seen in this locality. The ground rapidly became white and all outdoor work was suspended during the most severe part of the storm.

Jas. Shawley at Pataha Flat has lost five calves with black-leg this spring.

Will Patterson reports having crossed over ten feet of snow on his way from the Grande Ronde last week.

Vinson Anderson thinks that John Jeffreys is going to move soon. Vinson’s presumption is based upon the significant fact that John’s chickens have been roosting on the wagon the past few days.

John Ankrom, charged with stealing 1,660 pounds of barb-wire from E.M. Rauch, was arraigned before Justice Brown and held for trial in Superior Court. James Carolan, who was arrested on charges of horse stealing, was also examined and committed to jail.

A number of Pomeroy citizens with those of Pataha Flat set out shrubbery at the cemetery and otherwise beautified that “city of the dead.”

G. Shultz lost six fine hogs a few days ago. They were accidentally poisoned by strychnine.

James Simpson has his contract done on the new road from Rice’s Bar to Simpson’s Ferry. With a few days’ work the road will be open to travel.