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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The region learned of another local man who had been on the Titanic when disaster struck. John Bertram (Bert) Brady, 40, of Pomeroy, vice president of the Pomeroy Savings Bank and “one of the leading financial men of Garfield County,” was not on the list of survivors.

Brady had departed for a European tour the day after Christmas with his sister, Miss Ella Brady of Pomeroy, and several others.

The banker departed for home before the rest of the party and went to Ireland, where he boarded the Titanic.

“The last word his friends in Spokane heard from him was in the shape of post cards from Belfast, which arrived here last Friday,” wrote the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Brady was described as a prominent mason, a member of the El Katif Temple of the order of the Mystic Shrine in Spokane, and a man whose worth was “not less than $100,000.”

Also on this date

( From the Associated Press)

1862: President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. … 1947: The French ship Grandcamp blew up at the harbor in Texas City, Texas; another ship, the High Flyer, exploded the following day. The blasts and resulting fires killed nearly 600 people. 1972: Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon. … 2007 : In the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech before taking his own life.