Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

July 6, 2011

A series of workshops to help senior citizens with chronic conditions gain self-confidence and take control of their health will be held this summer.

Pomeroy Swim Team needs volunteers for two home meets and helping at the meets is a “perfect opportunity for high school students looking for community service hours.”

Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 10, 1996

Pomeroy Babe Ruth will sponsor tonight’s Wenatchee Youth Circus performance at the fairgrounds. The event is the first visit to Pomeroy by the troupe since 1992 and features youth high school-age or younger in acts ranging from trampoline and high-wire work to clowns and jugglers.

A Lewiston youth caught burglarizing a mountain cabin with an accomplice confronted Sheriff Larry Bowles with a rifle and came close to being shot. When the suspects were apprehended Bowles, thought there was the possibility they had been taking drugs. “To this date, I have never had a local kid as belligerent and obnoxious as these two were,” he said.

Pomeroy Fire Department provided mutual aid to a fire that burned 600 to 1,500 acres on the bluffs above the Snake River in the Silcott area of Asotin County. Cause of the fire was attributed to fireworks.

Pomeroy residents who normally use the east end of Arlington St. alongside the city golf course will have to use an alternate route for the next couple of weeks as city crews replace a water line along the road.

Fifty Years Ago

July 8, 1971

Mayor Bill Shumaker, recovering from a heart attack in April, announced at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that it would be his last. He had considered running for office again until he became sick. Bill McRae will take over as Mayor Pro-Tem.

Wynne McCabe and Tom Wolf were the first 18-to-20-year-olds registered to vote in Pomeroy and Garfield County following the passage of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which lowers the voting ago to 18 years for all elections.

Peola Pioneer Picnic will be held this Sunday at the Big Springs picnic grounds in the Blue Mountains.

This week at Martin’s Thrift grocery: Chuck steak, 65¢/lb., spareribs, 59¢/lb., coffee, 3 lb. tin, $1.98; chunk tuna 6.5-oz., 33¢; Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, 18-oz., 33¢.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

July 4, 1946

A baseball game with the Lapwai Indians vs. Lewiston Eagles will be one of the featured attractions at this year’s July 4th celebration sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. A parade at noon will be followed by a program at the park including dinner served from 12 to 2:00, with children’s races and swimming races after the ballgame. The day’s activities will conclude with fireworks, a picture show at the Seeley and dance at Maple hall with a Dayton orchestra. Before the dance the hall will have a display of war trophies. Members of the city fire department will be in charge of the fireworks display that will be shot off from the golf course hill about 9:00 p.m.

A city crew and its equipment, under supervision of Tom Bunch, chief of police, started out Monday morning repairing streets throughout the city. Little street repair was done during the war period, due entirely to the lack of help and material. Sections of certain streets, however, will have to be entirely rebuilt.

Booby traps have been placed in the Pleasant Ridge school for uninvited visitors due to recent damages. Apparently a group of delinquent youth pried open the lock on the schoolhouse door and damaged various items leaving the two rooms very disorderly, something never reported before in either school building in our community.

One Hundred Years Ago

July 9, 1921

Patriotic programs and plenty of action on the athletic field entertained the record crowds that poured in and packed the streets, the park and amusement places throughout Pomeroy’s two days’ celebration. Everyone admired the attractive parade, which was prepared at an estimated expense of $3,000, for the sixty floats furnished by the business houses. Civic club concessions netted about $800 for the swimming pool fund.

A consensus of farmers here is that with normal weather conditions for one week more Garfield County will harvest the largest wheat crop in its history, The Forty-fold crop on the Weller place indicates a 40-bushel yield.

Five hundred people were entertained by the play, “It Pays to Advertise,” as presented by the Chautauqua last week.

A car of horses and mules and one of tools and machinery arrived this week for use on grading and surfacing with crushed rock the approximately five mile stretch of highway east of the Asotin county line.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 4, 1896

Another big bargain! You can buy a “good boy’s suit” of clothes for $1.00 at the Pomeroy Mercantile Co’s.

A vicious bull killed the saddle horse of Dave Richardson at Pataha city. Mr. Richardson had a very narrow escape himself. Such animals ought not to be allowed to run at large.

P.F. Noyer has received his new ten-horse-power thresher engine.

Messrs. Jos. Dixon, John Woody and Luke Williams have ordered a combination header and thresher which they will have in operation on the Flat during next harvest.