Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

July 20, 2011

With the concrete pour last week and work done in the previous month, Pioneer Plaza moved from just a vacant lot to the public park that will encourage local residents and travelers alike to stop for a few restful minutes.

The fee for a new or renewed commercial driver license will increase from $30 to $61 this month.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 24, 1996

Ground was broken Monday at the corner of 11th and Columbia for Pomeroy Retirement Center, what is hoped will be the culmination of a six-year dream of having a senior housing facility in the city.

Pomeroy City Pool reopened Sunday after repairs were made last week correcting the rough surface areas on the pool bottom.

Fifty Years Ago

July 22, 1971

County Commissioners were asked to approve a proposed outdoor music concert at the fairgrounds in August. Dan Briggs, speaking for a number of Pomeroy youths supporting the project, explained the concert would consist of three local bands, Chris Cardwell’s, Jerry Moore’s and the Pomeroy Pickers, and possibly other local bands or players. The idea apparently was for a free listening evening, with everyone invited to hear a variety of music. No admission would be charged. The commissioners took no action, but agreed to meet with fair board officials.

National Bank of Commerce has announced the increase in its savings passbook interest rate from 4 to 4 ½ percent per annum.

A hearing will be held Friday on a motion of adjudicating for public use land owned by J.T. Ledgerwood on Alpowa Ridge. The State Highway Department is seeking the order for public use because it wants the land for a rest stop for U.S. Highway 12. Ledgerwood and the lessors of the property, Mr. and Mrs. Parker McFaddin, argue that other state-owned property is available nearby.

Shallow grid digging at a suspected Indian gravesite at Alpowa Creek turned up no bones within the boundaries of the first excavation last week. The graves are near U.S. Highway 12 in Asotin County are in an area which will be acquired for the reservoir behind Lower Granite Dam.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

July 18, 1946

The City of Pomeroy, since the beginning of the operation of the cannery on July 5, is consuming 2,000,000 gallons of water daily, one-half of which is used in the processing of Green Giant peas at the local cannery. Pomeroy’s water is 98.7 percent pure, according to the last test made by the state health department. The water contains 2.3 percent vegetable bacteria that is absolutely harmless for domestic consumption. The water is used as it comes from the springs and city wells and is not treated chemically in any way whatsoever.

The first carload of lumber ever sawed here in Pomeroy was shipped out Monday by the Pomeroy Lumber company to Spokane. The carload consisted of approximately 20,000 feet of rough lumber of various dimensions. Ten more carloads are to follow as quickly as the logs can be sawed.

One Hundred Years Ago

July 23, 1921

The first car of new wheat to be moved from Pomeroy this year left this morning. It consisted of Turkey red grown by Otto Ruchert, which tested 61 ½ pounds.

Considerable wheat already has been sold at prices ranging from 90 cents to $1, and averaging about 97 cents.

Included in the offerings at the Boucher-French carnival are a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, Hawaiian dancers, and “athletic show,” where muscular gentlemen challenge the whole world to wrestle at a dollar a minute, and a “49-dance hall” where less muscular but visibly more buxom young women show how it used to be done in Alaska before the flaming aurora succumbed to the more somber shade of the blue laws. There are stalls a-plenty where the lucky can get kewpie dolls and Indian blankets, a baby monkey which has made every three-year-old in town discontented with his inanimate teddy bear, and a “house of mystery” which cannot be described without disregard for professional secrets.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 18, 1896

Men’s suits $4.50. Pomeroy Mercantile Co.

The public well at the county block, owned jointly by the city and county, carries some two or three feet of excellent water and fills a “long-felt want.”

Bert Russell had a preliminary hearing Monday before Justice Brown, on a charge of threatening to shoot Sam Shawley, and was bound over to keep the peace.

Reports from different parts of the county say that grain will not make more than a half crop on an average. Altogether the crop prospects of Garfield County are not gilt-edged at present.

In the Falling Springs area, crops are badly damaged, some farmers estimating the wheat yield as low as 5 or 6 bushels to the acre. Perhaps there is not a crop in this section that will thresh out 15 bushels to the acre.

The Walla Walla agent for the combined harvester was on the Flat recently. He failed to make any sales because of the poor prospects for crops. The thermometer registered 101 degrees in the shade last week. If the extremely hot weather continues much longer the crops will be entirely ruined.