100 years ago — 1922

“Early Days in Pendleton” was the subject of a talk of extreme interest by Col. J. H. Raley at the Commercial association forum luncheon. Col. Raney said he first came to this section with his parents in 1862 and they returned two years later. At that time the flat where Pendleton is located was covered with cottonwoods and a thorn thicket. But one house stood near here, then known as Swift’s crossing. Later the site where Pendleton stands today was sold by Abe Miller to Mose Goodwin for a consideration of a team of horses and a cow. In those days, said the colonel, the entire district was covered with bunchgrass two feet high and there were well worn trails in various directions made by the Indians or by animals. The first few houses erected along the river were covered with grass and dirt roofs, the houses being made out of logs.

50 years ago — 1972

When the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office received several telephone calls about a big white dog that was foaming at the mouth and was feared to be rabid, Deputy Russell Bartlett was armed with dog-catching equipment and sent to the rescue. After he caught the dog, he found out that its owners had been feeding powdered milk to a batch of kittens. The greedy dog had been raiding the kittens’ lunch and coming away with his muzzle covered with harmless white foam.

25 years ago — 1997

When Bruce Anglin came to the rescue of a fellow guard being attacked by a prisoner at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, he didn’t realize the fight would last more than three years and pit him against his employer, the Oregon Department of Corrections. Anglin recently won that battle and a jury awarded him $402,000 in a civil trial. In 1993 when an inmate attacked a guard with a weight lifting bar, Anglin ran 100 yards, dodged a punch from the inmate and then struck the attacker on the forehead, breaking his hand. For his actions, Anglin was awarded the Department of Corrections’ highest honor — the medal of valor. The damage to his hand left him disabled and after nine months he returned to work in the EOCI mail room. A few months later he met with prison officials to find a permanent job at the prison. They denied his request because of his disability and in 1994 he was put on leave without pay. “There was a sigh of relief from the other correction officers when I won,” Anglin said, “because now they know that if they’re injured on the job they won’t lose their job. They can cite the Department of Corrections versus Anglin for precedent.”