This Week in Odessa History

A short circuit in the electrical wiring at the Odessa Flouring Mill caused a fire which threatened the building and a power outage for the entire town for more than a day on June 22, 1913.

The mill had been operated with steam power until 1911, when Odessa finally received electric power. A malfunctioning switch on the electric motor which now powered the milling machinery caused the fire.

The Odessa Record carried this report on the incident in its issue of June 27, 1913:

When head miller Neal Leary went to throw the switch at the flour mill last Monday afternoon at 1 o’clock to start the motor, there was a short circuit from some unknown cause and a blaze was immediately started on the two big beams which support the switch.

Leary ran to the power house across the road and had the power turned off, and a fire alarm was turned in. When the firemen arrived, however, the blaze had been smothered, but it was found that the 2,300-volt compensator in the mill had been burned out as well as the big transformer at the power plant, shutting off the light and power for the entire town.

Word was immediately wired to the Spokane offices of the Washington Water Power Company and two expert electricians were dispatched here in an automobile. When they arrived and examined the damage, they found that it would be impractical to make repairs here and a new transformer was ordered from Spokane.

The new transformer arrived in Odessa at 3 o’clock Tuesday morning and was installed by 6 p.m. The installation was done in record time by the Washington water Power Company. The town was without electricity for only 30 hours, when it was predicted it would take three days before power could be turned on again. Damage to the mill from the fire was light.

100 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

June 14, 1912

Local news was relatively scarce in the June 28 issue of The Odessa Record in 1912. A long article on the newly established Inland Empire Press Association began on the front page and continued on a subsequent page.

The Portland Flouring Mills Co. and the Union State Bank both ran ads on the front page, a common occurence for The Record one hundred years ago.

The year 1912 was also an election year, and the paper dealt at length with the results of the Republican National Convention, which nominated William Howard Taft for another term as president at the expense of former president Theodore Roosevelt. The Record’s editor R.S. Crowl, a Roosevelt supporter, was very disappointed, and his editorial reflects his belief that party bosses stole the nomination from Roosevelt through nefarious means, including having fraudulent delegates on the rolls.

“The new three-year homestead bill recently passed by Congress permits entrymen on public lands to prove their claims in three instead of five years, allos five months’ absence from a claim each year and reduces the acreage to be cultivated on large claims from eighty to forty acres. The bill is intended to so liberalize the homestead laws as to in a measure check the immigration of American farmers to Canada.”

One last news item of special interest to the current editor was the death notice for a family member: Mary Christina (Oestreich) Schmidt, wife of Johan Peter Schmidt and mother of eight surviving children.

25 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

June 25, 1987

Funding for wheat and barley varietal development “is in very serious trouble,” the head of the state’s wheat grower organization told growers attending WSU’s dryland research unit field day at Lind last week.

President Dana Herron of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers told listeners “funding for applied research at WSU was cut from $340,000 to $200,000 this year.”

And, he warned, a similar reduction could be expected next year.

10 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

June 27, 2002

A public hearing was announced to give local residents an opportunity to express support or opposition to a proposed project intended to update and beautify First Avenue throughout the downtown business district. Most of the cost will be covered by state and federal funds, but a matching-fund assessment for about one-third of the cost will be required of local residents.

School superintendent Warren Reeves II agreed to stay on in that position for another year when the school board’s efforts to negotiate a contract with an applicant for the position was unsuccessful. Reeves agreed to postpone his retirement by one year to give the board additional time for a superintendent search.

Connie Renelle (Smith) Nelson of Wenatchee, a 1968 graduate of Odessa High School and the daughter of Pat and Eddie Smith of Odessa, was named the 2002 Central Washington Registered Nurse of the Year. While still in high school, she began working as a Nursing Assistant, Certified (NAC) at Odessa Memorial Hospital.