Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A 40-year-old wife and mother was discovered dead in what was described as a “leaky shack in a desolate clearing” outside of Springston, Idaho, near Harrison.

A note beside the body indicated suicide – or did it?

Police were investigating some details that didn’t quite add up. Her 18-year-old son said that he woke up early that day to accompany his traveling-salesman father to the train station. His father told him not to disturb his mother because she was “not feeling well.” The father and son had walked a short way when the father said he forgot something. He went back to the cabin and later rejoined the lad.

When the son returned to the cabin alone later that morning, he found his mother dead, with a suicide note which said she “was tired of living in this cold, sinful world.”

Yet several questions remained. The body was uninjured and no bottle of poison was found next to the body – or anywhere in the cabin. And when the coroner’s jury searched the shack, they found a letter warning her “about another woman.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle said that the case had roused the residents of the area “to a high pitch of excitement.” Watch this space on Sunday for the next development in this case.