Help Needed In Preserving Colville Past

The Northeast Washington Genealogical Society in Colville, Wash., has undertaken a most ambitious publishing project that would help preserve the way Colville was 80 years ago, and your help is requested.

This genealogy group wants to reprint a series of articles written in the 1920s by J.C. Harrigan, then editor and publisher of the Colville Examiner.

Harrigan used to stroll down the main streets of Colville and write articles about the buildings, people and places he encountered. Now the genealogy society wants to republish the articles in a book illustrated with old photos of the places he wrote about.

If you have pictures of Main Street Colville from the 1920s, Susan Dechant, project chairwoman, would like to borrow them. The photos will be scanned and returned, with no harm done to them.

Dechant can be reached at (509) 738-6731 or by e-mail: sdechant@triax.com. Shirley Dodson is co-chairwoman, and can be reached at (509) 684-2883.

In other genealogical news:

Do you remember “Ode to the New Jail” included in this column in November and written in 1892 by Pie Box the Poet? The poem didn’t have an ending, and I invited readers to write one.

The original poem ended:

“So peaceful my slumbers and happy my dreams, oh why did I find you so late? So swiftly the moments pass by that it seems but a day since I entered your gate. And if in night’s stillness I wake from those dreams ….”

And there it ended.

Here are some reader suggestions:

Frank Mace, Spokane: “… I’ll believe I’m in heaven instead of in jail.”

Nan Waters, Spokane: “… and think of the free days of yore, I say to myself in ungrateful screams, at least life here’s not a bore.” Or, “… and think of the free days of yore, I say to myself, `You ungrateful cad, to thank God it’s never too late.”’ Euretta “Jackie” Deal, Spokane: “… to find that I’m no longer free to come or to go, at least I will know: the answer really is me!”

Margaret Underwood, Wilbur, Wash.: “… there’s no room in my heart for sorrow; I heard the whack of the hammer; the bite of the saw, ‘cause they’re aiming to hang me tomorrow.” Or, “… finish up sawing that bar through, my horse will be waiting with my partner outside. Rathdrum jail, oh, how I will miss you.” And: “… and reach out a hand for a friend, there will be the dear sheriff, a key in his hand, for that’s how all pipe dreams should end.”

Pie Box would be proud of you all.

Today’s trivia: What are your millennia genealogical resolutions? To get organized? Really work on that tough line? Write up those family stories? Write your own life story? Take a genealogy or Internet class?

Make it your aim to just DO IT. And don’t rely on computer technology to preserve your family history. Print it and distribute multiple copies into your family and to libraries.

You, and your descendants, will be glad you did.

Trying to decide about subscribing to Heritage Quest magazine? Call (800) 760-2455 and request a free “Index to Back Issues,” 1985-1998. Or check out the Heritage Quest Web site: www.HeritageQuest.com. Yearly magazine subscriptions are $28.

Today’s laugh: Murphy’s Laws of Computing:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

To err is human; to blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human. In fact, it’s downright natural.