From the Dayton Chronicle archives

Ten Years Ago

January 22, 2014

Grant Griffen, Bob Budig's grandson installed the final work, to adorn the Dayton Veteran's Memorial. The half bronze silhouette of a solider kneeling at the boots of a fallen comrade, holding the dog tags of the deceased with a bowed head, connecting the two. The silhouette is positioned just inside the memorial upon the main rocks inside, with lights to highlight the memorial at night.

Jennifer Warren, a freshman at Dayton High School, will spend a week participating in the Senate Page Program at the Washington State Legislature. Warren is sponsored by Sen. Mike Hewitt of the 16th Legislative District and was housed by Representative Terry Nealey and his wife Jan.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 20, 1999

Restoration of the Liberty Theater is closer to reality. The challenge of fund raising for the completion of the restoration project is estimated at a $450,000 cash outlay, not including the donation of the building, time, materials, labor that has been donated. The Liberty Theater was originally built as the Dreamland Theater in 1910, its name changed to the Liberty in 1917. In 1919 the building burned and was reopened as the Liberty in 1921.

Students at Dayton Elementary School will raise a tank full of rainbow trout from eggs to study the life cycle and the environmental needs of the fish. The experience will be more realistic and allow more educational opportunities with a new Living Stream tank installed in the Elementary School lobby. Funding is provided by a grant from the Blue Mountain Area Foundation and from WDFW's Salmon in the Classroom project. The Columbia County Conservation District is the lead agency for that project in Columbia County.

Fifty Years Ago

January 24, 1974

The Dave Frame family had flood damage. While the Tucannon River was very high from flooding, they lost about 400 feet of riprap and the bridge they spent all summer building, both approaches, to an upstream bridge washout.

The swollen, turgid Touchet River chewed out a 30-foot bank paralleling at 4th and Davis Hollow, endangering a telephone pole and power lines within inches of being swept away. Pacific Power and Light Co. shut off power to approximately 100 customers until necessary repairs were made.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

January 20, 1949

Tom Lowe, chairman of committee, says that again this year the old-time fiddlers are going to put on a benefit dance for the March of Dimes. There will be no charge but a "free will collection" will be taken, last year the Old-timers collected $41, hoping this year for better results. The musicians will include Claude Johnson, Dorothy Smith, Bob Williams, Billy Newby, and two musicians, Hopwood brothers of Prescott are expected.

The annual fundraising campaign of the local chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was completed with the mailing of March of Dimes cards to every automobile owner or telephone subscriber in Columbia County, according to Clifton H. McCauley, local campaign director.

Three farmer telephone lines in the Patit Valley will be supplanted by Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company facilities. The three lines belong to the Patit Cooperative Telephone Company serving approximately 27 families east of Dayton, which was started in1947.

One Hundred Years Ago

January, 1924

No information available.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 21, 1899

A. Roth, owner of the Dayton Electric Light Plant, ordered an entirely electric light plant for his system. One machine of this plant weighs 20,000 pounds. Mr. Roth's intention of putting in a system that will give perfect satisfaction, and if he can secure patrons who will put in electric fans, motors etc., he will run the plant during the day as well as at night.