This Week in Odessa History

This is Newspaper Week. For several years it has been the custom to write feature stories on newspaper work, the freedom of the press.

But this year The Odessa Record is entering its 60th year, and it is important to know that at least one of its original subscribers is still among the readers.

Last week 1220 papers were printed, and all were sold except the file copies. How many readers the Record has is something we wouldn’t even try to guess. Any subscriber can tell of the friends who read his paper, causing us to wonder if the Record isn’t about the most borrowed paper in the west. We know it isn’t because there are other papers who find the same reading interest.

This is an election year and we will find many instances among our readers of faithful appearance at the voting booths. We are proud of this, that our community is very conscious of the right and duty of voting.

Adam Weber, who died this month at the age of 92, voted in the September primary election , carrying on the tradition of steady voting that started when he received his citizenship papers many many years ago. A community of such people offers much reward to the publisher that helps guide the path.

Stalwart men like him built the community, and the Record told their story. These were the men who feared debt as bad as the devil, and fought the earnest battle. They built the farming area, kept their bills paid, their families clothed, schooled and churched, and opened their homes each week to the arrival of this newspaper. The newspaper’s association with these people has been a priceless privilege.

It is true that publishing a newspaper has its hazards. Last week we found that a paper can get away with many types of errors, but when it accidently raises the price of wheat 10 cents above the true market, a real furore results.

There have been times during these 60 years that the publisher and editors have had to face dangers. There was the time when it was suggested that a good business policy would be to consolidate Lincoln, Adams and Grant counties, with the county seat at Odessa. There were elements in Davenport and Ritzville that would have gladly lynched the publisher, and at times still would.

We are fortunate that we publish in an interesting town. Things have always been happening here, and this year interest is high in the oil well, missile sites, and other happenings.

We look forward to the years to come. Perhaps we have stored away but little gold from our efforts, but we have enjoyed working with our readers.

100 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

October 18, 1912

The week beginning Oct. 28 will be of more than passing importance to the farmers of the vicinity of Odessa. The Farmers’ Union of Lincoln county will hold a three days’ convention in Odessa beginning Oct. 28, with delegates present from all the different locales of the county. On Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2, a farmers’ institute will be held here under the direction of instructors of the State College at Pullman. Farmers should plan their work so as to be present and get the benefit of the various educational talks delivered at the meetings held during the week.

The High School Students’ Assembly have given over their regular meeting for Friday, Oct. 25, to the eighth grade pupils, who will present the following program: Piano solo, Alma Gillespie; paper, Charles Kucera; reading, Claudia Wagner; class history, Lydia Schatz; vocal solo, Rose Lowe; paper, Fred Lenhart; reading, Mildred Minch; class prophecy, Helen Schock; vocal duet, Alva Logsdon and Mary Shimek; debate, Leona Holmes and Aleck Kramer vs Ella Logsdon and George Merriman; piano solo, Gladys Webber.

75 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

October 14,1937

Continued warm weather with no rain is giving farmers considerable concern about their winter wheat, much of which shows need of moisture. Early planted wheat is better than that planted later, some of which is just out of the ground.

Occasional farms are found where winter wheat is thriving, while other ranches show signs of dryness and frost touch.

Odessa is due for musical treats this fall if tentative plans discussed at the Wednesday meeting of the commercial club materialize.

The ministerial association is planning on sponsoring the appearance of the A Capella choir from the eastern Washington college of education at Cheney on November 17, with a possible appearance at the high school during the afternoon and a public performance during the evening, with a collection to defray expenses.

A petition signed by Odessa sportsmen was sent to the state game commission this week, requesting that a special deputy warden be placed at the Stratford lake bird preserve, to prevent shooting there. The petition alleges that it is common practice to hunt on the lake and its adjoining territory during the hours before the season opens, a practice detrimental to the interests of other sportsmen.

25 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

October 15, 1987

Washington governor Booth Gardner, backed by 110 statewide members of a Superconducting SuperCollider support team, made a rapid-strike mission to Washington, D.C. October 6-7 to display united support for the eastern Washington site proposal. Twenty Lincoln County residents - including county commissioner Don Schibel, mayor Dorothy Schauerman and concerned citizen Al Fink of Odessa were among the group on the early-morning flight aboard a chartered plane from Spokane to the nation’s capital.

The Odessa School District board of directors, meeting Monday night, scheduled for December 15 a renewed bid opening for the general construction contract on the new high school building.

10 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

October 17, 2002

The asphalt overlay of Highway 2 through Odessa was due to start Wednesday, October 16, Mayor Carl Ryan said at the meeting of the Odessa Town Council on Monday.

However, spokesman Sam Todd of Wyatt Engineering said he had been advised by the Washington State Department of Transportation that the patching of the existing pavement on First Avenue was to begin on Wednesday and continue through the rest of the week in preparation for the overlay work, which WSDOT now says is due to start the middle of next week.

Each day of postponement puts the project in jeopardy as cold weather approaches.

Tom and Carol Karels are among the nation’s Odessa watchers.

They have visited several of the 11 or so Odessas throughout the United states, comparing them with their own hometown, Odessa, Minn., Zip Code 56276.

Last Friday they stopped in Odessa, Washington, Zip Code 99159, en route to the coast. They made the 1,300-mile trip in a day and a half, stopping overnight only in western Montana.