Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Joseph W. Cusick, the founder of the town of Cusick, Wash., finally had a chance to defend himself against his estranged wife, who was suing him on the grounds of drunkenness and cruelty.

He told the court that it all began when she came to work as his housekeeper. He “became very much attached to her.” He gave her the money to divorce her first husband, and four days later, Cusick married her.

Right away, she began to “object to his habit of taking his daily ‘eye opener’ and ‘night cap.’ ” This, she said, was evidence that he was a hard drinker. Cusick, however, maintained that he drank in strict moderation and it was a harmless custom he had followed for years.

Soon she began asking for “diamonds, fine clothes and an automobile.” When she didn’t get them, she filed for divorce, but he talked her out of it by giving her the deed to 160 acres of his land.

This made her happy only briefly. She turned right around and filed for divorce again. Cusick said she had cost him $2,000 in only eight months and he was now “crippled financially.”

Also on this date

From the Associated Press

1971: A four-day inmates’ rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York ended as police and guards stormed the prison; the ordeal and final assault claimed a total of 43 lives — 32 inmates and 11 employees.