Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A murder mystery was unfolding near a ranch outside of Spokane. 

Clarence Lester Farquhar, 14, was riding his pony to church. He stopped to chat with a pair of friends. Then he took their leave and disappeared around a bend in the road.

His friends said they heard a shot ring out, followed by a groan. They ran down the road and found Clarence on the ground, unconscious, with his pony standing nearby. No one else was in sight.

His friends carried him to a ranch a quarter mile away, but he died before they arrived. 

The coroner reported he had been killed by a single bullet through the back. The trajectory was upward and was “probably discharged from a rifle or revolver at close range.”

Police were investigating but so far had uncovered nothing to show from “whence the shot had come.”

From the evangelist beat: Sister Flora M. Bilkiss, Spokane’s most famous street missionary, said she prayed for an automobile and got one, a Ford.

However, on her second foray at the wheel she ran down a pedestrian. The victim had several painful bruises, and she was cited for violating traffic laws.

Sister Bilkiss said she would act as her own lawyer and that the man was “entirely in the wrong.” He, however, told police she was driving down the wrong side of the street when she hit him.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1969: The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.