Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten Years Ago

July 24, 2013

Stephanie West Renfro, PHS Class of 2008, broke the American National Powerlifting junior women's record in the deadlift Saturday with a lift of 380.25 lbs. The previous record was 374.50 lbs. Stephanie placed second in her division at National Powerlifting Championship in Orlando, Fla.

LCSC's Tennis Center, working with Otti Miller of Pomeroy, has provided two tennis racquets, six balls, and a racquet bag for use at Pomeroy's City Park courts.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 22, 1998

One of the greatest benefits of living in a small town is that people will find some way to meet a need, if it's great enough. Garfield County Fire Chief Larry Bunch said fire district officials have recognized the need to upgrade or replace the county's aging brush trucks. Thanks to about 450 man-hours volunteered by firefighters and others, the district has an updated rig and saved taxpayers about $150,000.

Randy Bowen, a former Pomeroy resident who has gained acclaim as a sculptor, met with members of Garfield County Pioneer Association to review plans for the statue he will create for the pedestal on the Courthouse lawn. Bowen said he will have a model of the Civil War soldier completed soon and the project should be completed by Fourth of July 1999.

Fifty Years Ago

July 19, 1973

Farm combines with headers attached may now be legally moved over public roads, according to a law passed during the special session of the state legislature.

"Fiddler on the Roof" the world-renowned Broadway play made into a movie a few years ago reaches Pomeroy, when the three-hour movie version runs at Seeley Theatre.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

July 22, 1948

Surviving business man of an era passed is W.L. Meyers, Garfield County's lone harness-maker. In fact, Meyers is about the only one left practicing this once-flourishing occupation in this part of the state. Wonder if the same will be said about local gas jockeys and garage men 50 years hence?

Bluford Thornton, custodian of the county courthouse, and Jim Schaefer, one of the owners of Schaefer's Café, got their full limit of fish and two dead rattlesnakes for their troubles, when they walked into Crooked Fork Creek some 50 miles south of Pomeroy. While perspiring up the trail the two stepped over two curled-up perfectly alive rattlers in the middle of the path. Bluford, a calm woodsman, stepped over them, but Jim pulled out his Luger pistol and promptly killed one, and laid the other out with a well-aimed rock.

One Hundred Years Ago

July 28, 1923

The happiest party that has visited the park this season, according to W.J. Nicholson and Yale Burt, park officers, was composed of 20 children and their directors, Mr. and Mrs. H.M. Draper, returning from a tour through Oregon, Montana and eastern Washington, from Des Moines, Wash.

The season for Cling peaches, Alexanders and Triumphs, is about closed, and the Hale's early variety, a semi-free peach, will be in the market next week. Peaches for canning purposes will not begin to come into the market until the last of August or the first of September. It was reported that the Davis crop, which supplies a considerable portion of the canning peaches sold in the Pomeroy market, was ruined by hail, but later reports show this was an exaggeration. The early crop was badly damaged, but the late crop, it is said, sustained no injury.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

July 23, 1898

The copious showers of last week were a blessing to late spring sown grain, and some of our farmers have taken up the slack in their lower lips to a very perceptible degree. Grant Shelton and the team that draws the street sprinkler probably appreciated the recent showers as much as anybody; but they are a good hot weather combination, just the same.

There are a good many dead beats in town. They appear at the back doors of our kitchens every day, asking for something to eat. While there was a call for more troops, and an attempt was being made to fill up the company that went away a few days ago, there was not a hobo in sight, but just as soon as the boys had gone, the tramps began to swarm in. The fact is they do not want to work, and will not, except as driven to it be necessity. Nothing breaks a tramp's heart so quickly as the sight of a permanent job.