PIONEER PORTRAITS

Ten Years Ago February 1, 2001

Recycling is catching on-use of recycling facilities in Waitsburg increased 62 percent in 2000. Some 35,320 lbs. of newsprint, 5, 180 lbs. of clear glass, 2,700 lbs. of aluminum, 4, 920 lbs. of brown glass and 10,720 lbs. of mixed paper, were recycled in 2000.

City council members are investigating an RV park near the old mill for the upcoming Lewis & Clark tourism boom in three years.

Twenty-Five Years Ago January 30, 1986

Waitsburg Lions voted to make vests available to new members and decided to smoke some turkeys for Easter eating.

The bighorn sheep population of southeastern Washington was boosted this week when Washington Department of Game officials released 14 of them in the Wenaha Tucannon Wilderness Area.

Born of out of a need, Whitman College and area small schools have formed a unique partnership and have started a program created by and for those small schools that will come to function as a summer program for teachers.

Fifty Years Ago January 20, 1961

Work began this week on the new Baptist Church on Second Street with the footings being poured on Monday.

Amber Angels Auto club will attend an auto show in Yakima on Jan. 28. Officers of the club are Jim Burres, president; Jack Otterson, vice president; Walter Hodgen, treasurer; Dean Hermanns, secretary; Bruce Harris, reporter; Gary Wheeler, Don Lytle and Richard Collingwood, safety officers.

Joe Watson, patrol leader of Troop 36, accompanied Jimmy Wills, Stan Pearson and Billy Bloor to the Scout cabin Saturday afternoon. Roy Leid took the boys up in his pickup.

Seventy-Five Years Ago January 17, 1936

Walter A. Miller of Walla Walla this week leased the Morgan building and purchased the fixtures of the soft drink and confectionery formerly known as the Horseshoe club.

Many Waitsburgers were in Walla Walla Monday evening to attend the Admiral Byrd lecture which was illustrated with still and motion pictures of his last Antarctic expedition.

Postmaster Clyde Weatherford of Dayton was in the town Monday a short time shaking hands with old friends. Clyde was on his way home from Walla Walla, where he attended a district meeting of postmasters

One Hundred Years Ago January 20, 1911

Miss Carolyn Wright and Mrs. Leigh A. Horner were married at the home of the bride's mother, this city, Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Rev. Morse, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, performed the ceremony in the presence of a few relatives and intimate friends. Immediately after the ceremony a delightful luncheon was served.

J. H. Morrow, general manager of the J.H. Morrow Implement Company, Friday disposed of his interests in the company and in the future will devote his time to the interests of the Morrow Drew Hardware Co. of which he is president.

In the second game of the season, the local high school girls won from Pendleton High by a core of 29-4. They won from Milton High before the holidays by the decisive score of 22-2.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago January 22, 1886

Delbert Hart went to Huntsville in a sleigh a few days ago, but he walked back and had the sleigh shipped back, after the necessary repairs were made. Dell says he needed exercise anyway, and don't care if the sleigh did go smash.

Born near Alto, January 16, to the wife of W.D. Wallace, a boy. Mrs. W is 40 years old, has been Mrs. Wallace 14 years, and never 'til the 16th of January, 1886, was called by the name of "mama." Well better late than never.

R.H. Ormsbee is the boss shootist of Waitsburg sports. He recently killed a dead chicken -shot it three times notwithstanding it had been frozen for several days.

The bill locating the Penitentiary at Walla Walla passed by the legislature. The bill appropriates $50,000 for the building of the penitentiary.

The Walla Walla Journal of last Saturday says that at an auction sale at the garrison, that afternoon, C.B. Hopkins of Colfax, proprietor of the inter-town telephone system in the upper country, bought for $50 the government line between Dayton and Fort Lapwai (Lewiston). Telephone service will be established on the wire by next Monday noon and will be connected to Walla Walla by May 1.

This Week in History

The 80-ton stern-wheeler Josephine was launched at Seattle in 1878 and fitted up for the Skagit River trade. Five years later, on Jan. 16, 1883, her boiler exploded, instantly killing six members of the crew, including the captain, and several passengers.

The steamer was about a mile off shore when the explosion occurred, sending the crown sheet up through the pilot house. The boiler was blown entirely out of the bottom. A quantity of wood in the hold kept the hull afloat which was later found upside down about four miles from the scene of the disaster, and towed into Tulalip Bay, where it was repaired. Six passengers and one crew member survived. They were rescued and cared for by Indians living on the shore, until the Politkofsky picked them up for Seattle. The rebuilt steamer was purchased by the Moran Brothers.