100 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Nov. 5, 1920

Emmett Bancroft, alias Neil Hart, sang every song he knew up to within 15 minutes of his stepping upon the gallows at Salem this morning, Deputy Sheriff Glenn Bushee said in a phone message to the East Oregonian. The slayer of Til Taylor stepped up to the trap unflinchingly as though going to a barber’s chair and died bravely. His was the first execution in Oregon since 1914, when capital punishment was erased from the statute books of the state. The statute was reinstated in June, a month before Taylor’s murder. Hart’s father, W. Z. Bancroft, of Denver, although armed with a petition of more than 600 signatures including Pendleton residents, has been unsuccessful in his attempt to have the death sentence commuted. Hart was the 97th man to be hanged by Prison Guard Lambert, who sprung the trap. The noose reposes in Bushee’s suitcase and will be brought to the Umatilla county jail by him tomorrow..

50 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Nov. 5, 1970

Conservationists in Eastern Oregon mounted a last-minute write-in protest against Rep. Al Ullman, D-Ore., for his plans to introduce legislation dealing with the Minam River. The result was 118 write-in votes for S.T. Minam, which stands for Save The Minam and is also the name of the conservation group which supports establishing the Minam River area as wilderness. Dolores Moore, Union County recorder, ordered the write-ins counted because they represented a protest vote although they were not for a person. Conservationists object to Ullman’s legislation because the Senate has already approved a bill which would designate 800,000 acres in the Minam as wilderness. Opponents of Ullman’s proposed bill contend that its new classification of “roadless recreation area” would open the way for logging of the Minam in future years.

25 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Nov. 5, 1995

Most U.S. history classes don’t spend much time exploring the triumphs and travails of the native people who began their own history on North American soil well before the colonization of the 1600s. But a new class at Pendleton High School which begins next semester sets out to explore the other half of history. The class will stay focused on local and regional Indian tribes, said Tim Zacharias, a PHS history teacher who designed the new course this summer after reading dozens of books as well as talking to tribal leaders. Indian history is nothing new for Zacharias, a Joseph native who turned in his own high school theme paper on the Nez Perce. “There’s a significant population in Pendleton that doesn’t appreciate tribal culture,” said Zacharias, who hopes his class will rectify some of those misconceptions.