This Week in Odessa History

100 years ago

From The Odessa Record

July 23, 1915

Record temperatures for the season were recorded Wednesday. Coming as it did on the heels of the cool weather, the change was very noticeable. Different places in the Inland Empire reported the mercury ranging from 91 to 100 degrees. The official report here at noon saw 103 degrees. Old residents here say it was the hottest day in three years.

The Odessa Record began a subscription contest in which each new subscription or renewal was awarded “votes,” with multiple-year subscriptions worth up to 12,500 votes. Contestants were allowed to have their votes credited to any other contestant. The grand prize was a solid-gold, diamond ring with a Tiffany setting. Second prize was a bracelet watch, third prize a diamond necklace set, fourth prize a scholarship to Wenatchee Business College, fifth prize a pearl necklace set, sixth prize an engraved gold bracelet, seventh prize another scholarship to WBC, eighth prize a lady’s opal ring and ninth prize a lady’s sapphire ring.

75 years ago

From The Odessa Record

July 25, 1940

The Odessa school board is advertising for bids for construction of the new grandstand, goal posts and other facilities for the new playground. When completed, the playground will be one of the most modern in the area, with an enclosed grandstand, beneath which will be shower and dressing rooms for local land visiting teams, public rest rooms, drinking fountains. The playground will include tracks, football and baseball fields, the latter with grass turf. Practice fields will be provided, as a protection to the grass areas.

W.C. Raugust, Odessa Trading company manager, reports the company’s new 80,000-bushel grain elevator at Batum was finished Saturday, so the firm would receive wheat in it this week. The roadway to the new elevator has been strawed and improved. Wheat in the Batum area is reported better than hoped, with 15-bushel yields common.

Lloyd Dormaier, 2-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Dormaier of Hartline, was smothered to death by falling into loose wheat in the bin of an elevator Mr. Dormaier recently built on his ranch.

With the intent of keeping the “country’s biggest privately owned ranch” also one of the country’s best preserved, John H. Harder announces that the 110,000-acre holdings of the Jake Harder family have been placed under a systematic plan of range management drawn up by technical specialists of the soil conservation service. Jake Harder, senior member of the Harder family, came into the country 60 years ago, starting out with a few sheep. Soon thereafter he entered the cattle business, began to buy up parcels of land, and now at the age of 78 and still actively on the job, is widely known as owner of the largest ranch in private hands in the entire country. A model of his large holdings in Lincoln, Whitman and Adams counties is on exhibit at the San Francisco exposition.

50 years ago

From The Odessa Record

July 22, 1965

The Odessa School Board hired George A. “Al” Latimer as the school principal and Norman Erickson as the new fifth-grade teacher. Both are Spokane natives. Latimer has taught previously at Lind and at Freeman High School. Erickson is a first-year teacher.

A band concert by the 7th, 8th and 9th-graders from the Odessa schools will be present to the public Sunday afternoon, July 25, Ron Griggs, director, announced this week. A varied concert is promised, featuring marches, concert music and popular melodies. The concert will culminate the summer band program. Students of the three grades have been meeting Saturdays from 10 to 2 for practice and rehearsal since the schools closed in early June. Griggs, who is attending summer school at EWSC has conducted the music rehearsals.

The possibility of home delivery of mail in Odessa was discussed by the town council. Inasmuch as the town now has street signs, house numbers and sidewalks – all requirements of the postal department – the matter will be given consideration. It was reported by Mayor R.L. Tanck that St. Maries, Idaho, a town comparable in size to Odessa, has the door-to-door delivery.

25 years ago

From The Odessa Record

July 26, 1990

Barbara Deffert, an Odessa elementary school teacher from 1926 to 1936, visited Odessa to reunite with friends and former students. Now nearing 90, she has retired from teaching in the Spokane School District. She was still active in district matters until a broken hip three years earlier forced her into retirement.

Marlys Kissler was named “Employee of the Quarter” at Odessa Memorial Hospital, where she works as a certified nursing assistant.

Renee Marie Branson and Michael Nichols, Jr. announced their engagement to be married.

10 years ago

From The Odessa Record

July 21, 2005

Action on the Highway 21 realignment moved to the north end of the project this week as Halme Construction crews focused on pavement removal at the north town limit of Odessa in preparation for linking the new route to the existing highway.

A graveled detour several hundred feet long has been built around the construction site to permit traffic to keep rolling on the main highway as it enters the town.