Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

June 26, 2013

By Doris Ann Landkammer Todd-Fifty years ago, in 1963, Alvin Landkammer talked to the VFW post about giving a scholarship to some of the graduating seniors to help pay some college expenses. The VFW officers asked Alvin how he would fund this scholarship and he smiled and told them he thought the VFW should have a fireworks stand. It was a patriotic project, celebrating the freedom of our country, plus Alvin always loved to make a little noise and blow things up.

Pataha Flour Mill will have a patriotic theme for its upcoming "Pataha Valley Praise Gathering." According to mill director Jon VanVogt, the program will begin with several verses of the National Anthem, and include early American military and folk songs, along with well-known hymns and gospel songs.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

June 24, 1998

The GTE "Big Ride Across America" for the American Lung Association, with 730 riders from all over the country, pedaled through Pomeroy on Saturday morning. "Where you end up at the end of the day in a pack of 700-plus bike riders isn't a function of just speed. It might depend more how much you like to sleep in," said Frederico Goes, a rancher from Tamaulipas, Mexico, whose wife and three children live in McAllen, Texas. When he stopped on Main St. on Saturday, Goes had ridden 401 of the trip's 3,230 miles.

Three businesses developed by Garfield County Human Services received the regional award for outstanding achievement in employment training services. Ye Olde Washboard Laundromat, Planetary CDs and Book Exchange, and Planetary Pizza, all retail businesses operating out of the same location on Main St. between 8th and 9th were recognized for their accomplishments in employee training. The award was presented May 28 by Greater Columbia Behavioral Health, which is the regional support network for an 11-county area in eastern Washington.

Fifty Years Ago

June 28, 1973

A proposal to consolidate Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, and Malheur national forests has been delayed pending a U.S. Senate committee hearing on the consolidation of forest in general, an official of the Umatilla National Forest said. Study of consolidation of the three forests as an economy move has been underway for some time.

Pomeroy sewer system is fighting a losing battle against modern throwaway towels and similar materials. It seems that some local residents have been flushing the items down toilets, but the same technology that makes these cloth-like paper products so wonderful also keeps them from breaking down, and as a result, when flushed into the sewer system they often become caught. As a result the Pomeroy sewer system has been getting plugged when one or more of these paper towels becomes lodged somewhere in the system. This causes sewers to fail to function properly, even to the point of backing up.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

June24, 1948

Award of a $4,874 bid for construction materials for five Pataha creek bridges was let to the Tum-a-Lum Lumber Co. by the city council Monday night. The city will furnish the labor for the project to begin in about 45 days. Bridges across the creek, which flows through Pomeroy, will be constructed at First street; Seventh Street; East Columbia street; Third Street East; and Ninth Street East. Tum-a-Lum bid for cement was $4.11 a barrel. Most of the cement will be used for the retaining wall on Pataha creek between Fifth and Sixth streets.

Do not cut and then replace your sewing machine belt when it gets loose. Put a few drops of castor oil on the band, run the machine a few moments and the belt will be tight again. However, if the leather has been very much stretched this will not remedy the trouble, but it is an excellent preventative and cure for the early stages.

One Hundred Years Ago

June 22, 1923

"These cows don't owe us anything," said John Folmsbe, when asked why he was taking two cars of cows and calves to market from the range here. "They raised from six to eight calves a piece and paid for themselves, and now that they are getting old and have nice calves we are going to put them on the market." Mr. Folmsbe further stated that these were grades, and that hereafter they expected to raise nothing on the Folmsbe & Green stock ranch except purebreds.

The necessity of reorganizing the common school administrative system on business principles in line with the proposal agreed to by educators last winter, but presented to the legislature too late for consideration, is clearly demonstrated by the facts revealed in a survey of 58 school districts in six counties of the state made last fall by the state federation of taxpayers' associations. Among the many outstanding revelations of the survey was the discovery that in one district with 36 pupils in attendance, the oldest but 15, and the seventh grade the highest taught, art, music, domestic science and manual training are included in the curriculum, while $56,277 was spent for a gymnasium.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

June 25, 1898

One of those peculiar spectacles sometimes presented by a severe storm was noticeable during the recent disastrous hail storm, and was observed by many people on the Pataha Flat. It was a yellowish substance which accompanied the dark clouds, giving them a bronze green appearance, and in some places falling to the ground with the hail. One man declared it was the pollen of the back pine trees, which had been caught up in the mountains by the terrific storm and carried down over the country below. It was, at least, a peculiar and unusual sight, although it might not have properly come under the head of a phenomenon.