Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

August 17, 2011

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2351 donated the 25-foot by 15-foot flag displayed in the high school gym to the Pomeroy School District “to leave a mark” regarding the Post’s contributions to the community over the years.

Winning bid for general construction contract for the Pomeroy Junior-Senior High Modernization project was $7,537,255.00 by Leone and Keeble, Inc., of Spokane. The high school gym will be able to be used for the fall and winter sports.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

August 21, 1996

Poachers are at work in Garfield County to the disadvantage of local hunters. Two recent illegal game-killing incidents involved a spike bull elk in the Mayview area and two three-point whitetail bucks on Oliphant Road in the Blind Grade area. All would have been legal in the upcoming season. Moreover, the animals were just shot and left.

Pomeroy City Pool will be open through Sunday, Sept. 8. The extended season is due to the pool closure for repairs in July.

Fifty Years Ago

August 19, 1971

Weakening of a high-pressure ridge allowed cooling air to move over the Northwest over the weekend. Pomeroy started cooling off Friday night after its 30th straight day of 90° or above temperatures was recorded. The mercury read in the 100°-102° range 12 times over the period. It was 98°-99° eight times.

Harvest yields have been great but no settlement is foreseeable in the dock strike, which economists say has already destroyed part of the export wheat market.

Striking laborers at Lower Granite Dam returned to work Monday after a compromise settlement.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

August 15, 1946

As a precautionary measure against infantile paralysis, a disease prevalent in some of our neighboring communities, county health officer Dr. J.W. Sherfey suggested to the city park board that they close the municipal swimming pool for the remainder of the season. He advises parents keep their children close to their own premises and not permit them to gather in groups, particularly with children from other neighborhoods.

The City Council passed an ordinance abolishing a number of streets and alleys in the city cemetery, which will be plotted into one-half lots, and by their action will automatically enlarge God’s acre considerably.

Plans for building a county-city fire station are being discussed as the rural and city fire departments intend to increase their equipment to four units. The station now used in the City Hall is not large enough to house the departments’ three units and more storage space is desired.

One Hundred Years Ago

August 20, 1921

What with the running down of a supposedly stolen car, and the raiding of the Madison Lumber Yard and arrests there of two charged, and afterward convicted and fined for being drunk, with an additional fine of $35 and cost imposed upon one of the defendants for having booze in his possession, Sheriff Dixon and Night Officer N. Whittaker spent a rather strenuous Monday night this week.

Mr. and Mrs. L.T. Christopherson in their automobile, with two other carloads of people, came near being swamped in the middle of Snake River Sunday, when the high wind struck the beat on which they were crossing at Central Ferry. They were held in midstream for more than 30 minutes with the waves rolling two feet deep over the boat.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

August 22, 1896

Frank Biles was taken from jail in Asotin Tuesday night and hanged by a mob for the criminal outrage of Miss Mary Richardson, a young lady who was visiting in that vicinity from Enterprise, Ore.

Saturday the Lewiston stage driver met with an accident which might have proven quite serious. His horses took fright at a thresher engine and started to run and one of the lines was broken. The driver jumped forward and caught one of the horses and managed to stop the team, but was kicked three times during the tussle. Fortunately no serious damage was done, but the driver says it was an experience he doesn’t care to repeat.

Dr. Gose reports a case of diphtheria at the Skyhock farm five miles south of Pomeroy, and, naturally, the residents of that neighborhood and this city are greatly alarmed. It is feared that the disorder will spread and become general, as it appears that proper efforts were not at first made to prevent it. The house has been quarantined and it is to be hoped that every precaution will be taken to check the disease and prevent it becoming epidemic. Outhouses, alleys and yards in this place should be thoroughly cleaned, and the matter should be looked after by our health officer.

A number of farmers have their threshing done in the Meadow Gulch vicinity, the grain averaging, so far, about 10 bushels per acre.

Grasshoppers are very thick around the George Harris place. They have stripped nearly all the blades from a field of wheat belonging to Mr. Hull.

Some are “kicking” because berry pickers are breaking the huckleberry bushes and taking them to the shade to pick the berries off. They say there will be no huckleberries next year.