Groundhog prank was short-lived in Coulee City

Apparently entertainment was simple and easy in Coulee City during the early days. But the groundhog prank was ... well, read on.

Grant County history

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column. Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we backtrack a bit and then continue the story of Coulee City by Verne Adams, recorded March 8, 1977:

There were three pool halls, cleaning and pressing, and a harness shop and shoe repair, and two barber shops with two men in each shop. Since Gordon has mentioned barber business, Wade Purcell was a special friend of mine and I thought he was the grandest person and if I'd just go and be a barber I could be just like him. But I couldn't. But I did pass the barber's examination and had a license as long as I could afford to keep it up.

Herschel Wanling ran the butcher shop and the slaughterhouse. I had a lot of experiences with him, too. I could tell you a lot of things about him, but one in particular; he and I were down there digging some postholes for a hog pen or something and we went back after lunch and there was a groundhog in the hole. He was a bald headed man, and he said, "We'll have some fun with this groundhog I'll tell you."

So he sent me back to the slaughterhouse to get a gunny sack, and I went and got this sack and he was an awful man to swear, too. I'll say that, but anyway, we started up town with that groundhog in that gunny sack and he was just going to have the most fun. He was going to turn it loose in somebody's pool hall or store or somewhere.

And we just got going good and the groundhog just ate his way out of that gunny sack and down through his legs and if you ever heard a guy cuss and swear, he sure did. So we missed out on that. But there were some awful characters there and all real good guys.

There was a man's clothing store, the man also sold cars later on. We had three warehouses; E. Alwell, Jerry Dodd and Harry Mathis. This man, Alwell, he got to bucking the board of trade and made a million dollars I guess and he went out north of Coulee City, right out there in the rocks, and he put up the finest dairy barn in the world, at that time I know it was.

He had 100 cows milking out there and he was going great guns, but the bottom fell out of his stock market and he left just like that, too. So I don't remember what became of him. He really had things going.

Email from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins:

From the Columbia Basin Herald on April 21, 1950:

Hospital Board gives accounting of donation and tax collections

A total of $36,953.46 has been spent for Samaritan Hospital by hospital district directors, according to a recent report of William Latshaw, board secretary. Of this amount, $26,000 was raised by local donations and $11,156.53 was received from county tax monies.

The hospital has cost more than that. Donations of money, sewing and services have been made directly to the hospital and Manager Gerard Smith says only that thousands of dollars have been saved that way. In addition, the volunteer fund raising committee paid the Warden Fire District $1,428.28 last November to clarify the county tax situation and avoid a substantial millage loss.

Some money still is to be collected by the volunteer committee, Chairman Russel Smith said this week. This money was pledged during the fund raising campaign of February, 1950 and has not been paid.

Wilson Creek area history

The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.

Today we begin the story of Donald Kennedy McDonald, by Donald A. MacDonald:

Today some of the most highly improved and productive districts of the Spokane country owe their development to Mr. Donald K. McDonald, who has been a pioneer in the advancement of irrigation methods, marking out the path that others have followed.

He was born in Nova Scotia, June 10, 1861, a son of Simon and Elizabeth (Kennedy) McDonald; who were also natives of that country and were of Scotch descent. The father, who was a farmer by occupation, died in 1879 and the mother's death occurred in 1910. In the family were five sons and six daughters: Hugh D., John Henry (former farmer at Wilson Creek), James W., Simon, Christine,. Elizabeth and Catherine. Three others were listed as .deceased.

The other member of the family is Donald K. McDonald, who was educated in the Pictou Academy of Nova Scotia. He engaged in teaching school in that country until he reached the age of 18 years, the three "R's" apparently being about equal to three degrees today.

In 1879, he went to California where he was a lumberman in Eureka and San Francisco and in 1881 he came to Spokane where he worked on the construction as a bridge builder for the Northern Pacific Railroad until 21 years of age. The following year he homesteaded near Edwall and farmed there until 1884. He was elected to the office of county assessor for Lincoln County for three consecutive terms of two years each. He had the enviable distinction of being the only assessor of Lincoln County who was ever re-elected.

Mr. McDonald returned to Spokane in 1891 where he entered the employ of the Oregon Mortgage Company, which he represented for about 20 years, resigning as their agent in the fall of 1910. He and a partner established a State Savings Bank in 1893.

The bank was closed in the financial panic that followed but eventually all the depositors were paid off.

On February 10, 1897, he married Maud Seelye, a native of Minnesota. About 1900, the couple moved to E. 228 Mission where they lived for 28 years. They had one daughter, Vera A., who became Mrs. Joe A. Cunningham.

R. A. Hutchinson and McDonald entered partnership in buying up land in the valley (Spokane). They were later joined in the venture by A C. Jamison. Eventually the partners acquired 6,000 acres now known as Opportunity and Veradale. Opportunity was established from part of these holdings.

Then in 1908 the first well was put down in Evergreen for irrigating the area. The concrete pipe installed then in connection with the well is still in use. In 1957, 18 miles of new domestic water main replaced the early system, some of which was wooden pipe laid during the depression. Vera, named for McDonald's daughter, was founded, divided into ten-acre tracts, on some of which orchards were planted, and settlers began to come in. For a good many years the land was in orchards and truck gardens.