100 Years Ago - 1912

The C A Ratcliffe Company became the dealer for Ford automobiles in Cheney.

The Rotary Rod Weeder & Manufacturing Company formed to build the farm tillage implement invented by Kyle and Cleve Wolfe.  The company hired Louis Van Patten as manager to oversee production of the Rotary Rod Weeder in a factory just east of today’s Cheney-Plaza Road.  The company was later renamed the Cheney Weeder Co. and relocated to just west of Cheney-Spangle Road.  The company moved to Spokane about 1953.  The building burned in 1964.

James Monroe Mason and Ross Erlandsen bought the first automobile in Amber, a model-T Ford from Lynn Ratcliffe who came out and stayed with them for a few days to teach the men how to drive it.

The Grand View School was a model rural school operated by the Normal School, three miles north of Cheney on the wagon road to Spokane about one mile from the electric railway line.  It was a brick building with indoor toilets.  The school was discontinued by 1932.

January 14th  The members on the Congregational Church dedicated their new brick church building at 405 F Street .

April 24th  The Cheney State Normal School main building was destroyed by early morning fire.  All of the school records were lost along with the early library materials.

June 21st  The Cheney City Council passed an ordinance which set the speed limit for trains at 8 mph and 12 mph for automobiles & motorcycles within the city.

July 17th  Fire destroyed Mr. Nicholson's Cheney Tailoring & Gent's Furnishings as well as Royce's Meat Market.  The Cheney Cash Store and Hubbard's Store were also gutted by the fire.  Royce's Meat Market was a wooden building next to the Cash store. Brown's Auto behind Hubbard's was saved by its tin roof.

August Wheat sold at 26¢ to 28¢ a bushel.

August 6th Mamie J. Rogers was appointed Post Master of Amber and moved the operation to her home near the SP&S Railway depot.

75 Years Ago - 1937

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge six miles south of Cheney by executive order.

January 15th Coach W. B. Reese's Savages basketball team dedicated their new Normal School basketball floor in the new training school gymnasium.

March 3rd The State Normal School becomes Eastern Washington College of Education through legislation signed by Governor Clarence D. Martin.

March 20th Fire completely destroyed the large dairy barn operated by Carl Hair 1/4 mile east of Cheney on the Spangle Road.  The fire was thought to have started from a stove in the milk house.

April 6th Martin Hall, named for Governor, and Cheney native Clarence D. Martin, was dedicated, housing the Laboratory School (formerly Training School).

April 24th Fire destroyed the milk house and considerable equipment at Meadowland Dairy of James Cosselman.

May 6th The dirigible "Hindenburg" exploded at Lakehurst, N.J., killing thirty-six.

July 2nd Amelia Earhart and co-pilot Fred Noonan vanished over the Pacific Ocean on their Round-the-World Flight.

August 6th Fire swept through 470 of acres on the Heinemann, Grein, and Mickey farms near Betz Road north of Cheney.  Two hundred fifty acres of stubble, 220 acres of wheat were destroyed; 120 on the Heinemann place and 100 on the Grein place.

125 Years Ago - 1887

O.B. Royce opened meat market in Cheney, he arrived in town in 1886.

A.H. Powell opened a drug store at 327 First Street.

The Cheney School District organized its own school after dissolution of the merger with the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy over, among other issues, the feeling that Congregationalists had too much influence over the academy which was supposed to be non-sectarian.  The district hired the newly arrived William J. Sutton as principal of its school.  The Cheney Public School offered instruction for grades one through eight.  School was conducted in the old wooden County Courthouse building at the northeast corner of 4th & Normal Ave.

In 1886 it was reported that 3000 people called Cheney home.  The population rather quickly declined after Spokane Falls won back the County Seat in the November election.

January 20th  The new Union Pacific Railroad passenger depot was completed at Marshall.  The dedication was held Monday, the 24th with an evening social dance.

April 29th   An earthquake woke many residents.

June 6th Dr. Francis Pomeroy was elected Mayor of Cheney.

August 7th Only one saloon remained in Cheney as the population dropped after the loss of the county seat.

25 Years Ago - 1987

The El Nino winter left just 25 inches of snow through the entire winter in our area.

Marshall Creek no longer flowed all the way to Hangman Creek.

July Cheney Fire Dept assisted when fire storm swept through the neighborhoods south of Spokane destroying at least 23 expensive homes in the Hangman Hills area. The fire was whipped by 43 mph winds and temperature at 85 degrees.

October 19th The Black Monday stock market crash sent the U.S. into a recession.

Martin Hall and Laboratory School

The Normal School destroyed for the second time.

New cars being delivered to C A Ratcliffe Co.

William J. Sutton

Dr. Francis A. Pomeroy

150 Years Ago - 1862

Captain John Mullan completed the military road from Walla Wall Washington to Fort Benton Montana.  Mullan first came west as a lieutenant with Isaac I. Stevens in 1853 to survey a northern railroad route.  In 1858, with government funding, Mullan began construction of the road.  He also participated in the Battle of Four Lakes and Spokane Plains under General George Wright.  While the road was completed in 1862, funds for its maintenance were diverted to the Civil War and the road was neglected until 1877  when General William T. Sherman traveled the Mullan Road and ordered its restoration.

Early settlers in our district used the Mullan Road which came north from Walla Walla passing near Amber and Chapman lakes on its route to the northeast.

50 Years Ago - 1962

The Rotary Club organized in Cheney.

February 20th - US astronaut, John Glenn orbited the earth 22 times.

April 13th - Fire destroyed the refinery of the Inland Oil Co. owned by Ernie Geschke in Cheney located just south of the railroad along F Street. The building had housed the Cheney Weeder Company for many years. The nearby Cheney Grain Growers plant and Stephen Wise home were saved.

June - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints organized in Cheney.

July 1st - The new postal 5-digit zip code system went into effect.  Cheney's new zip code was and still is 99004.

October 20 to November 20 -  The Cuban Missiles crisis.

Capt. John Mullan

Students tour Cheney Weeder Co.

World War II veterans all over Cheney hit the deck when a gas explosion started the fire which destroyed Geschke’s oil refinery.

Astronaut John Glenn