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 conclude the story of Soap Lake by Mrs. Knapp recorded May 11, 1976:

Dad started bootlegging in Soap Lake. Finally the federal officers got him and put him in jail in Ephrata. So one of his lady friends wanted to bail him out. So she went down there to see him and said she'd bail him out. It only cost $10 to bail him out.

"Why," he said. "No, I don't want to be bailed out. I'm getting free board and room."

So then he got out and he decided to go down to California and clear down to Arizona. I guess it was Arizona and he bootlegged all his way down there to make his living and when he got down there he bootlegged until he passed away.

Today we continue with the story of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project by Jake Weber, recorded on Nov. 9, 1976:

We must not forget the many good things which the Columbia Basin Commission did for our Grand Coulee Project. I appreciate the number of years that I was a member of that Commission. At one of the meetings back in Washington, D.C., Congressman Jensen from Iowa asked me, "Mr. Weber, do you have Soil Conservation Districts in the Quincy area?"

I said, "No, we haven't. (I thought real fast and said) But we'll have one before the year is over." And we did. And who did most of this work in Soil Conservation formation, weed control districts and others? None other than our own George Delany.

I take my hat off to George for the many things he did. I was fortunate enough to serve on several committees for the county which he chaired and I believe that he is one of the unsung heroes in Grant County, if not in the entire Columbia Basin. I am sorry George is not here today, I'd like to shake his hand.

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:

Mercer girls arrive in 1860s

The first group of Mercer girls brought to Washington were new England women who had been widowed or orphaned by the Civil War.

Governor signed own pardon

Isaac Stevens, Washington's first territorial governor, once signed a document in which he pardoned himself for contempt of court.