In the early 1900s there was talk of irrigation and all wheat

was hauled to the booming town of Wilson Creek. Read on.

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.

In the early 1900s there was talk of irrigation and all wheat was hauled to the booming town of Wilson Creek. Read on.

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 continue with the story of Moses Lake by Earl Cole, recorded May 13, 1975:

See, Kenneth Saunders' mother was a sister of the McDonalds and Mrs. Ewald was another sister. She home steaded right where the airbase is. Well, I think I've told you about all I know.

In later years of course, I married my wife in about 1913 and we left Frenchman Hill country and most everyone else did, you know. My father, they talked about irrigation, telling what they could do if they had water, some of the early homesteaders, but they never had the chance to see what water really would do to this country. Now the ditch goes right alongside above where my uncle's place was, or right through it rather, and my dad's homestead was right on above it and I had an aunt that came out at the same time and she had a homestead that corners right on where Skone-Conners Road goes, right through it there.

Also Finley McDonald He had a brother.

Two brothers of them and they lived out there where the road turns to O'Sullivan Dam. And that was a halfway place between Wilson Creek and Lower Crab Creek.

Most all the wheat and what they raised had to be hauled to Wilson Creek in the early days. You know, Wilson Creek was quite a booming town at one time. They had three saloons there and I don't know how many grocery stores, but I remember that the whole country would go in there and that whole flat in there was covered with teams and wagons. They would go in there one day and go back the next, because that was before the Milwauke Railroad was in here.

I was going to tell you about the McManamans. There were two, Tommy and Jim McManaman, had a ranch down below the Drumheller Ranch about a mile or so. Well, it'd be a mile or so before where the dam goes across the road there and we used to have pioneer picnics there. I have a picture and I've been going to bring it up here and see if we couldn't get some more made. It was taken in 1910 down there.

E-mail 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 Friday, Oct. 29, 1948:

KSEM to broadcast election returns from Herald office

Grant County election returns will be broadcast from the Herald office Tuesday night over KSEM and everyone's invited to join the party.

KSEM will run a special wire into the Herald office and the broadcast of first returns will begin at 9 o'clock, one hour after the poles close.

Special reporters in Grant County's 25 precincts will telephone results at regular intervals during the night to the Herald office, where they will be tabulated and put on the air.

Candidates for county commissioner and state representative are being invited to attend the affair and comment on the results as they are tabulated.

The public is invited to join the election night stand at the Herald office or listen to the returns over KSEM or both.

Commissioners to act Monday on fire district

A rural fire district around Moses Lake moved closer to actuality this week when County Auditor C.A. Hawley accepted the petition and certified its adequacy to the county commissioners.

The auditor's office must review the entire petition for legality, form and must check on the number and correctness of signatures. Although only 15 percent of the registered voters within the proposed district are needed as signers, Moses Lake's petition carried many extra names, according to Jud Henderson, fire district committee chairman.

Hawley said the proposed district would be on the agenda for the county commissioners' meeting next Monday, when it is expected that they will order a formal hearing on the petition sometime in December. After this hearing, at which all interested parties are welcome, the commissioners will fix the date for a special election to be held in the proposed district.

Wilson Creek history

A large part of this column deals with firsthand accounts of history seen through the eyes of our early pioneers. The book of memories of Wilson Creek is packed full of them. Read on.

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 continue the story of James P. Gilman by Thomas Howard Gilman:

The early day settler had many things to contend with, which are overcome or non-existent today. First came fencing the fields with several miles of barbed wire. Then horses and wagons, plows, harrows, seeders, headers, header boxes, hack and buggy were necessities. A house, barn, chicken house, hog house and other sheds had to be erected.

The farmer only had one payday in the fall after his wheat was hauled to the warehouse and sold. He had to depend upon the town merchants to supply him with necessities the year around, above what he could generally borrow from the bank, or what the grain purchaser might advance him on the prospects of his wheat crop. During this time he tried to live off a few cows and chickens, and raise hogs enough for a year's supply of meat. Selling eggs and butter to the stores for groceries.

Ground squirrels were a nuisance in those days, living in large colonies and ruining acres of wheat. Poisoning them with poison wheat was about the only way to combat them. Badgers would dig them out and make large dens in the fields, in which the horses and machinery sometimes sank. Coyotes and hawks were a menace to the chickens which ran loose on the farm. The wireworm would kill acres of new wheat and sometimes frost ruined many acres. The hot winds at certain times would burn the wheat and the head would only have shriveled grain left in it. Then came the Russian thistle and Jim Hill mustard. This seemed like the straw that would break the farmers' back. Early plowing would be infested with the thistle so thick that it was impossible to hoe them, as was first tried. Homemade rod weeders were some help, then hand hoeing afterward, the weeds that were missed. However not until the revolving rod weeder was invented and the tractor replaced the horses was the thistle controlled.

Early days saw the usual outbreak of sicknesses. Mumps, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox and more serious illnesses. Influenza being the worst as it struck at practically all homes and took its toll in many. Before the days of the Model T Ford, getting a doctor to visit a patient meant several hours travel by horse and buggy.