Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

August 14, 2013

Pomeroy swimmers dominated at the Tri-County Knights of Columbus Jerry Cluckey Memorial Swim Meet in Colfax Saturday August 3, and took home the championship trophy for the seventh consecutive year. The Pullman Barracudas took second with 281 points, but fell well short of Pomeroy’s whopping 497.5 points. Shelly Slaybaugh has been coaching the team for about 15 years, and recalls having about 20-25 swimmers in the beginning. That number has grown to over 70 swimmers the last two seasons.

Twenty Five Years Ago

August 12, 1998

Garfield County Commissioner Dean Burton will lead a delegation of commissioners from counties along the Snake and Columbia rivers to a meeting with Gov. Gary Locke to discuss their opposition to breaching of dams on the rivers. Burton, along with Whitman County Commissioner Les Wigen, gained passage of a resolution by the Washington State Association of Counties opposing “removing-breaching any existing dams on the lower Snake River and Columbia River.” The resolution states that drawdowns or removal of the dams would have adverse impact “through a loss of recreation, an increase in electrical rates, increasing freight mobility costs and economic hardship.”

Fifty Years Ago

August 9, 1973

Poor condition of several wooden bridges in the county was pointed out at the Board of Commissioners meeting Monday night as Sheriff Russel Pierce showed pictures of the Hutchens Hill Road bridge over Pataha Creek, where a 26-inch-long hole in the decking had been discovered only minutes before the meeting was due to start. Pierce said this hole was big enough to cause serious damage to an automobile or, if a truck hit it, could rip out the whole bridge.

Seventy Five Years Ago

August 12, 1948

Take it from Miss Maaike Henya, pretty 23-year old native Hollander, farming in Holland is not like Garfield County and its big wheat ranches. Miss Henya, who came to Pomeroy from Holland June 10, “is quite thrilled and excited over the way we live and farm,” said Mrs. A.E. Vander Vate this week. The girl from the Netherlands is employed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Vander Vate on their farm east of Pomeroy. She plans to make her permanent home in this country.

One Hundred Years Ago

August 11, 1923

S.E. Bruce, who was helping the contractors Ward & Greiner, to erect the warehouse on the north bank at Central ferry for Cardwell & Young, says new wheat began to come in the next day after the house was finished. Forty thousand sacks have been contracted for the season.

One Hundred Twenty Five Years Ago

August 13, 1898

A clever swindling scheme is being worked by a pair of smart fellows in various parts of the country. One goes through the country on a good bicycle, claims to be hard up and offers to sell the wheel cheap to get some money. After a few days the other sharper turns up and claims to be looking for a man who stole his wheel. Judging from the success met with by the numerous fakes who have already visited Garfield County this season, the bicycle sharpers could not strike a more verdant field than this.