This Week in Odessa History

For three weeks in November 1909 Odessa fretted over an act of charity which was reported to be coming its way.

The town of Palouse in Whitman County, according to Spokane newspapers, was sending a freight car loaded with fruits and vegetables for the farmers of the Odessa and Quincy areas.

The people of Odessa were indignant over the circulation of a report that there was a shortage of food, The Odessa Record reported in its issue of November 12.

No one seemed to have known how the story about poverty in Odessa got started. The wheat harvest had been on the short side that summer, but was far...