Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Spokane County auditor attempted to unravel a matrimonial mystery at the clerk’s office.

Groom F.B. Heardt, 54, and bride L.E. Heardt, 43, came to the courthouse to obtain a marriage license.

Because their last names were identical, he tactfully tried to determine whether they might be, well, cousins or something closer. They evaded all questions. He continued to “unravel a few strands of the romance of the couple,” apparently by asking them how they met and similar questions. They waved his questions aside and declared they had nothing to tell.

They then went to the chambers of the justice of the peace to say their vows. The judge also tried to find out a little more about them. He finally learned only that the groom was a miner from Goldfield, Nev., and had been divorced once. The bride was from Spokane and this was her third marriage.

Seeing no particular reason to halt the proceedings, the judge pronounced them man and wife.

From the train beat: A miner ran desperately toward his departing train in downtown Spokane. He was so intent on catching the train that he failed to notice that the train was approaching the Spokane River bridge. 

The miner fell into the river and painfully pulled himself up the embankment as the train disappeared toward points north.