Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten years ago

April 11 2012

With a beautiful sunny afternoon the day before Easter, the Spinners Club’s annual Easter Egg Hunt drew hundreds of kids ready to find a total of more than 1,500 hard-boiled and toy eggs. The hunt’s new location at the City Park drew praise for its convenience and advantages for organizers and participants. Spinners president Larry Ledgerwood told the crowd that the contributions by dozens of local businesses and individuals to support the egg hunt made it possible for the club to organize the event and provide hundreds of prizes.

In addition to the animal-powered farming operations, Spring Farming Days offers visitors to the Garfield County Fairgrounds site the opportunity to peruse the Eastern Washington Agricultural Museum displays, outdoor exhibits of equipment, including tractors and antique vehicles, and the Blue Mountain Artisan Guild sale and show.

Twenty-five years ago

April 9, 1997

Garfield County is among 19 counties that have been added to the list of those eligible for federal disaster assistance for individuals as a result of the winter storms between Dec. 26 and Feb. 10. The county had been previously declared eligible for public assistance and hazard mitigation.

Tonight, Wednesday, April 9, Pomeroy Church of the Nazarene will host Rev. Jonathan and Kathryn Mowry, missionaries to the Commonwealth of Independent States, the former Soviet Union. The Mowrys presently serve in Kiev, Ukraine.

Fifty years ago

April 13, 1972

Kathy Kausche was top 4-H judge from Garfield County at the Livestock Judging Contest held last Saturday at the fairgrounds. Kathy scored a total of 335.7 points out of a possible 400. Perry Beale was second with 328.5 followed by Sam Ledgerwood with 316.2, Jimmy Koller with 313.9 and Jim Waldher to finish out the top five with 310.7 points. Other Garfield County 4-H members who judged are listed, but not in the order of their scores include: Ray Wolf, Monty Koller, Larry Batterton, Pat McGreevy, Melinda Beale, Wayne Tetrick, Peter Ledgerwood, Ronel Beale, Felicia Beale, Larry Fitzsimmons, Mike Marbach, Leonard Wolf.

Driver’s licensing will return to Pomeroy Thursday, April 20, with the return of the driver’s license examining station, according to Allan A. Pursley, regional supervisor for the Department of Motor Vehicles, Yakima. Pomeroy and Dayton and other smaller cities in the state had license examinations several times a month until last July when the department discontinued this practice. A bill sponsored by Sen. Hubert Donohue reestablished some of the stations, including Dayton and Pomeroy.

Seventy-five years ago

April 10, 1947

Any Garfield County resident who has not visited the rodeo and fair grounds between Pomeroy and Pataha since last fall’s rodeo has missed the thrill of driving around the newly constructed race track and seeing the huge dirt moving equipment in action. Work on the grounds has been almost continuous since last October when the two dirt-moving machines were rented form the Empire Equipment Co., of Spokane. These machines are worth $17,000 apiece and are pushed by an 80-horsepower Allis-Chalmers tractor. It is expected they will be returned to Spokane within a week’s time, so anyone wishing to see them in action should visit the grounds in the next few days.

Thirty or more fine race horses have already been promised an entrants in Pomeroy’s first horse race meet set for June 14 and 15, according to Dewey Brown, president of the Garfield County Fair association. Arrangements to enter the horses were made when several Pomeroy fair association members attended a meeting of the Blue Mountain Racing association at the Marcus Whitman hotel in Walla Walla, Saturday. Plans were made at that time for the spring racing meets of the Blue Mountain circuit, which includes Walla Walla, Dayton, Waitsburg, Pomeroy, and Union, Oregon.

One hundred years ago

April 8, 1922

The Pomeroy commercial club becomes a member of a federation of commercial clubs, having headquarter at Lewiston, as a result of a decision at the meeting held in the Pomeroy hotel, Monday. Recently the Lewiston commercial club invited Pomeroy to come in for a share of the benefits expected to be derived from cooperation by several Idaho and Washington clubs surrounding Lewiston. Both C.M. Vassar and H.H. Hadley had visited Lewiston and investigated the movement and recommended that the home club accept the invitation.

A baseball game between the married men and single men will be played at the local ball park on Sunday, April 9. Edward Buchet will manage the single men and F.M. Robinson will oversee their opponents. The proceeds of the game will be used to build a batting cage for the town team.