Local historian detailed the histories of Latah and Whitman counties from the beginning

When Joann Jones took on the assignment to produce history columns for the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, she wanted to start at the beginning.

In speaking with then-editor Lee Rozen, she was told “we don’t have to go back to the Dark Ages.” She disagreed.

“I chose to start at the beginning because I didn’t understand how these hills got here,” Jones said.

The first column appeared in the Daily News on May 17, 2014, and the final column, the 100th, was published nearly two years later on April 9, 2016. The opportunity came about after Jones began writing a historical record for the Latah County Historical Society. She shared her work with a friend at church, Sydney Rozen, who relayed it to her husband, Lee.

“He asked me to write one per week,” Jones said.

She initially thought the columns would all be about Latah County. That was where her expertise was, after all. Jones had worked as the curator at the Latah County Historical Society for 17 years.

“But then he (Lee) said it would be the Palouse. He wanted Whitman County, too,” Jones said. “When I said I didn’t know about Whitman County, he said, ‘well, you can learn.’ I learned. It was a lot of fun.”

Jones conducted much of her research through journals provided to her from the Latah and Whitman County historical societies.

“Those are where I got the basic, beginning research,” she said.

Not long after she began conducting her research, she was able to come across other works that helped her in her quest.

“Everything kept falling into place,” she said.

Initially, Jones was worried she would not be able to produce one column per week. That worry quickly faded.

“The articles just kept coming. We couldn’t keep up with the subjects we found,” she said. “We never got to them all.”

Jones, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1980, was aided in writing the columns by Kathy Warren, a friend of hers who had retired from her post at Washington State University in 2012. Warren described herself as Jones’ ghostwriter, submitter and photo gatherer and processor. Jones’ dexterity was limited due to her MS, and she had difficulties writing and typing.

“We could do this if she helped me. She took notes because I can’t hold a pen,” Jones said. “And she was the one who did the typing. I decided what it was going to be about and how it was going to be organized. We both did the research. We called it the ‘Kathy-Joann Method.’”

Jones said she cherished the time she was able to spend writing the columns.

“Everything I learned about these two counties, about the Palouse, there’s just so much here,” Jones said. “It’s just a wealth of interesting subjects anywhere you go and interesting people.”

Jones and her husband, Dick, moved to Moscow in 1976 from New Mexico to escape crime there. Jones began applying to jobs, and the couple decided to move wherever she could get a job because they thought Dick would have an easier time of getting a job wherever they went.

“We decided it would be nice to be somewhere else. I found a job at the University of Idaho, and I got it, so we came,” Jones said. “We haven’t regretted it once. Moscow impresses me so much.”

Jones worked at the University of Idaho for 10 years teaching home economics, housing and home furnishings, textile designs and a housing class. When her contract was not renewed when she came up for tenure, she decided to go back to school for her doctorate. When it came time to do her dissertation, though, tragedy struck her family. The couple’s 14-year-old son, Ethan, drowned on a family vacation in Oregon.

“I didn’t want to go on,” Jones said. “I didn’t complete that (dissertation). I’d still like to go back and do that.”

Not long after, Joann and Dick adopted a newborn baby, Zachary. The family built a house on Moscow Mountain, and Jones became the curator at the Latah County Historical Society.

“That was really the job I wanted,” Jones said. “I did that for 17 years. I took disability and retirement because I was getting close to the wheelchair and that doesn’t work in a historical museum when you have to go up to the attic to get the artifacts.”

It was after her retirement from the historical society that Jones began producing historical columns.

“It’s been a fascinating, fun journey,” Jones said of detailing the histories of Latah and Whitman counties.

Next week, Jones will relocate to an assisted living facility in Coeur d’Alene, where her son lives. Her husband, who has osteoarthritis, will remain in Pullman, where he lives at Regency. In her new journey, Jones said she is looking forward to sitting back and doing some more writing.

“I’m going to write my autobiography next,” she said.

Jones said she is also working to compile her 100 columns into separate historical volumes for the Latah and Whitman County historical societies.