Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

November 27, 2013

Pomeroy resident Jem Crossfield has family and friends in the Philippines, where Typhoon Haiyan has caused thousands of fatalities and massive devastation. Jem, who is leaving Dec. 18 to visit her homeland, has made a beautiful quilt that Blue Mountain Artisan Guild is putting up for bids. Mary Flerchinger, Guild president, said all money raised will go to typhoon relief. Bidding on the quilt starts at $50. The quilt may be seen a BMAG Art Center on Main Street.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

November 25, 1998

Nancy Ruark, Garfield County Fair manager, was elected president of the Washington State Fairs Association at the organization's 58th annual convention. More than 320 members attended. Ruark faces major hurdles in her term, including the present absence of any state funding for fairs. After the 1998 legislative session, Gov. Gary Locke vetoed a funding package for the fairs that was developed by the legislature in conjunction with a pari-mutuel tax relief package for the horse racing industry.

Fifty Years Ago

November 22, 1973

Pomeroy's new street lights are energy savers. Compared with the old street lights, the new mercury-vapor lights along Pomeroy streets use nearly half the electricity as the old ones, while at the same time putting out nearly twice as much light. According to information supplied to Lineman-Agent Scotty Dryden from officials of Pacific Power & Light Company, the new mercury vapor lights save nearly 24,000 watts. Dryden noted that with the lights operating an average of ten hours a day, this totals 7,200 kilowatts a month saved.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

November 25, 1948

Pomeroy's first formal Christmas opening since before the war will be unveiled Monday, December 6, with a downtown program that is expected to attract hundreds for the occasion. The 1948 opening was decided upon at an enthusiastic meeting of the Pomeroy Junior Chamber of Commerce in the Pomeroy hotel dining room Tuesday evening.

One Hundred Years Ago

November 24, 1923

Mrs. A. Godwin of Beaverton, Ore., is not depending on the management of any man in the matter of handling cattle. Mrs. Godwin has a section of land in Oregon, where she feeds stock, and some pasture land on Snake River, in this county, where they are grazed during the summer and fall months. Monday, she shipped out a carload of cows and calves which she had driven in from the river range. This is said to have been the first shipment of cattle out of Pomeroy under the exclusive management of a woman.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

November 26, 1898

During a temperance campaign, a lawyer was discussing, with no little show of learning, the clauses of the proposed temperance law, says the Presbyterian Review. An old farmer, who had been listening attentively, shut his knife with a snap and said: "I don't know nuthin' about the law, but I've got seven good reasons for votin' for it." "What are they?" asked the lawyer. And the grim old farmer responded: "Four sons and three daughters."