PIONEER PORTRAITS

Ten Years Ago

July 3, 2003

Construction work on the renovation of Coppei Avenue from about Ninth Street to the Preston Avenue Bridge will begin July 7 with removal of trees and wrap up in late Septem- ber when the finished roadway is painted with fog and center lines. During the construction, Highway 12 traffic will be routed on Main Street.

"The two words to remember this summer are patience and cooperation," said Mark Shively, City Councilman who will serve as the liaison between the City of Waitsburg and its citi- zens and the Washington State Department of Transportation and-or the prime contractor on the $960,000 project. . . ."This will affect the entire community," Shively said. He urged parents to talk to their children about safety and traffic that will be using Main Street. "I'm confident it will go well and at the end, it will be a beaut!"

Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 7, 1988

People in the Waitsburg area who have a history of heart problems may breathe easier in a couple weeks. Waitsburg Ambulance's "smart" defibrillator arrived this week, and it will be on board the rig soon, after WAS EMTs attend a three- hour class on July 25. The unit is about the size of a briefcase and weights about ten or 15 pounds. A pop-up liquid crystal display (LDC) gives the EMT instructions depending on the conditions it senses through stick-on electrodes applied by the EMT. It also talks to the EMT, giving the same instructions via computer-generated voice as they appear on the LCD dis- play. An automatic defibrillator is designed for use by EMTs, says Dr. Greg Brown, Walla Walla County Medical Program Director. Brown says the EMT will learn how to attach the electrodes to the patient, hook up and follow the computer's prompts.

Fifty Years Ago

July 5, 1963

The Waitsburg swimming team is practicing for their first meet against Prescott at the Prescott Pool at 10:00 Monday, July 8. Peggy Brunton is in charge of the swimming team, as- sisted by Jill Cyr and Joe Watson. The team has been working on three basic strokes: Backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. Team members are -

Ages 10 and under - Jeff Harper, Marshall Maib, Pat Mohney, Linda McKinney, Susan Maib.

Ages 11-13 - Gail Thames, Jack Gullekson, Paula Benson, Joe Cyr, Jim Leid, Barbara Bennet, Andy Maib, Robert Maib, Jim Langdon.

Ages 14-15 - Wally Bennet, Dick L. Baker, Joe Gullekson, Jill Cyr, Neta Henze, Peter Rohde.

Age 16 and over - Joe Watson.

The diving team is made up of Ray Mohney, Denny Neal, and Joe Allen. They are working on three basic diving styles and will compete in all meets. The team has two meets scheduled with Prescott, one with Dayton, and one meet with Memorial Pool Team from Walla Walla. There is the possbility of a meet later on in the season with the teams from Pasco and Richland.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

July 8, 1938

Mr. and Mrs. T. V. McKinney, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Mantz and Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Petersen drove over to Sunrise Inn in Mount Rainier National Park and stayed over the weekend.

Mr. and Mrs. H. V. Grubbe reached their 63d wedding anniversary on Monday of last week.

George Bateman will leave the last of this week for Camp Rotary on Mill Creek, above Milton, Oregon, where he will have charge of the mess.

Freddie Zuger and Jack Kinder were holiday visitors at the popular Wallowa Lake resort. Jack reports 10 feet of snow around American Lake.

Mr. and Mrs. Pete Atkinson and Mrs. Atkinson's mother, Mrs. Wm. Gohlman, drove to Tollgate and then went over the new Elgin cut-off to LaGrande.

Marvin Lloyd, who recently purchased one of the new All-Crop Allis Chalmers harvesters, cut and threshed 5 acres of barley just west of town, belonging to O.M. Conover. This is the first grain threshed in this locality this season.

One Hundred Years Ago

July 11, 1913

Kenneth Corbett, son of Judson Corbett of Huntsville, was badly burned with powder July 4. He has bought a half pound of powder to load a small cannon and carelessly dropped a lighted match into the powder which exploded. One wrist was badly burned and the face blistered. The eyesight is not injured.

Warm weather has again started in this section. The thermometer registered 93 in the shade Sunday.

Waitsburg was a "deserted village" on the Fourth - even more quiet than usual Sunday for all the aut omobiles were out of town and everybody who cared to be were either at Walla Walla, Dayton, Dixie or over on the Tucannon at Marengo or Tumalum. The celebration at Walla Walla was the best ever pulled off at the County Seat and the morning parage especial- ly would be a credit to any city. The hundreds of Waitsburg- ers who attended were well pleased with the entertainment afforded.

John Miller has a 30-foot harrow running in his sum- merfallow. Eight head of horses are used - four head near each end.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 6, 1888

Doc Willard has 120 acre piece of wheat that is worth looking at. It is the Blue Stem, stands as high as a man's shoul- ders, is entirely free from weeds and is as thick as it can stand. Some of the heads measure 6 inches. Doc looks for 50 bushels to the acre and we don't doubt that he will get it.

A woman of Georgia lived 40 years with her husband and never once asked for money. We suppose she was deaf and dumb and didn't know how to write.

C. N. Babcock's gray team tried their hand at a run-away again yesterday. They started at the depot towards the rising sun and succeeded in telescoping the carriage.

Horse thieves are still in the land and a few nights ago they entered the pasture of B. Camp and took therefrom a valuable horse. The thief and horse were captured at Wallula.

This morning while leading his team from the barn to the field for mowing hay, Nathan Cox received a severe kick from one of his horses. Just how badly he is hurt is not known, but there are fears that it will prove to be serious.