Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

More details emerged about the life of Anna Weber, 22, who was murdered on the steep slopes below Summit Avenue.

Her parents earlier insisted that she had no “romantic entanglements.” Yet police discovered that Frank Thiry, a Spokane blacksmith, had been planning to propose marriage to her at the time of her death.

Police did not believe Thiry was involved in the murder. However, this discovery did lend some added impetus to one theory: that her killing was somehow connected to a quarrel she had with her father before she left home that night.

Police said the girl’s parents “seriously objected to Thiry.” In fact, her father, an Austrian-German immigrant, had already picked out a husband in Stevens County for Anna.

The parents liked the Stevens County man because he had money, but Anna had seen him only via photograph – and didn’t like what she saw.

Thiry was well-known to the family, “dating back to the time they all lived in Austria.”

Police were continuing to question members of the family, separately and repeatedly.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1816: Indiana became the 19th state. … 1946: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.