Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

July 28, 2011

The Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office is considering bringing a program to Waitsburg that would dispose of residents’ prescription and illegal drugs to keep them out of sewer systems and landfills, but an inability to fund and staff the program could prevent its fruition.

Zooming by on Highway 12, it’s easy to miss the unassuming signs that mark the county line. “Entering Columbia County” reads the one going east. “Entering Walla Walla County” greets drivers heading west.

For T. J. Hersey, running her father’s grocery store in Dayton is a way for him to live on. Hersey is now a third-generation grocer in town. Her grandfather, H. W. Stephenson, came to Dayton in 1938 from Portland, Ore.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 13, 1995

[Photo caption] Waitsburg deputy marshal Mike Guay holds ‘intoximeter,’ a device that measures the alcohol content in a person’s breath. The device is used to help deputies decide whether a person should be cited for drunkenness.

For the first time in Walla Walla County, prosecutors have cited a beekeeper for violating zoning laws restricting honeybees near a seed-alfalfa field. Similar citations are expected, officials said. Prosecuting attorney James L. Nagle said his office is reviewing as many as ten other cases involving the improper keeping of bees in the county.

Help wanted! The Lions Club in Waitsburg is calling for assistance in the preliminary landscaping at Waitsburg Elementary School this weekend July 15 and 16. Anyone with a rake, shovel or both should meet at the school on Coppei Avenue and Academy at 8 a.m.

Fifty Years Ago

July 23, 1970

One indignant wife, namely Mrs. Don Abbey, took the Times to task this week for giving her husband credit for her cucumber crop. Amelia explained the pickle picking is her project including weeding, watering, picking and whatever other work is involved in growing the two acres of potential picnic fare.

William H. Dellos, former Vo-Ag teacher at Melba High school in Idaho, was hired this week to fill the position vacated this year by Gary Ogden.

Walla Walla County Engineer B. Loyal Smith notified the Times that the County will pick up any wrecked car bodies and haul them away during the week of August 2-7. The County is not looking for extra business, but is doing this as a public service to clean up the right-of-ways in Dixie, Prescott, and Waitsburg.

Major and Mrs. Jerry Jackson have adopted a baby girl recently named Susannah Patrice born June 12, who joins a sister Kelsy Korrine. Grandparents in Prescott are the Clifford Jacksons.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

July 27, 1945

Twelve Camp Fire girls from Waitsburg are at Camp Kiwanis above Walla Walla this week. They are Donna Price, Joanne Collingwood, Betty Clark, Elaine Land, Gloria Kubis, Grace Nees, Lassie Smith, Janet Collins, Kay Hermanns, Margaret Reed, Nadine Callahan, and Pearl Stedman.

The first grain of the season was brought into the Columbia County elevator in Huntsville from the Ed Wilson place in the middle of last week.

Ileen Nutting, Arlene Stedman, and Hazel Allman are attending the Christian Church intermediate camp at Hidden Valley on the upper Tucannon this week.

One Hundred Years Ago

July 30, 1920

W. H. Hawks and Bert Witt have purchased Holt Junior combines this season to handle their crops.

The Pricilla Club held a picnic at Coral Gardens above Dayton at the beautiful grove of Miss Cora Loundagin, on Wednesday. Cars left the Cash Bazaar at 9:30 in the morning.

Bruce Abbey started his combine Monday in the Whetstone, and Emory and Hobert Bruce also expect to get their stationary outfit to grinding out the grain in the latter part of this week.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

August 2, 1895

A.W. Philips made us a pleasant call this week. His grain crop consists largely of barley which he will feed to his hogs.

Mr. Philips makes money raising hogs; his hogs are the very best; they grow rapidly and are ready for market when only a few months old.

John Mullinix has opened a barber shop in the Wade building on the west side of Main Street.

The harvest of 1200 acres of pea crop in the vicinity of Waterville has kept a large force busy the past two weeks.

M. H. Keiser’s wheat is making a yield of 45 bushels per acre, and first class wheat too.

The Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal Church has opened a reading room in the Bruce Hall for harvestmen.