Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A 25-year-old husband and his 63-year-old bride told reporters that it was “just love – too much love” that caused him to try to commit suicide in the Spokane River.

George Kelly said they had been through a “little disagreement, a little misunderstanding” right before the incident. They had been married only a few months, yet already his bride was becoming jealous and suspicious.

“I love every hair in that boy’s head,” said Mrs. Kelly. “And I hate to see him leave me at any time, even for a few minutes. 

“The trouble is, I can’t bear to have him go out of my sight.”

Young George became so despondent over their “misunderstanding” that he went to a bridge and jumped in the Spokane River where the water was so fast and deep he would be “carried against the rocks and dashed to pieces.”

But after hitting the water, “I changed my mind about dying.” He swam to a log boom and was rescued.

The couple had met that spring at a spiritualists’ meeting. Mrs. Kelly was a clairvoyant.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1862: During the Civil War, the Union Army’s first all-black regiment, the self-described “Chasseurs d’Afrique” (Hunters of Africa), was formed in New Orleans (which was then under Northern control).