Jim Kershner’s this day in history
From our archives, 100 years ago
Four sheepmen near Yakima had been plagued by disappearing sheep. They had been wintering 104 sheep on a range outside of Toppenish, but 44 of the sheep went missing over several nights.
So, the sheepmen set up a trap. They hid one night in a coulee not far from the sheep corral.
As they watched, two men drove up in a wagon. One climbed over the fence and began handing sheep to the other, who put them in the wagon.
The hidden sheepmen jumped up, guns drawn, and ordered the two thieves to put up their hands.
However, one of the thieves reached for a gun. All four sheepmen fired and one of the thieves fell dead. The other ran off into the night.
The dead man was later identified as a local man with six children.
From the school beat: Louie Hong, 17, graduated from Hawthorne School with the highest honors in his class, despite the fact he had arrived from China only three years earlier.
When his father brought him to Spokane, he could speak no English. He started in first grade at Hawthorne, but raced through all of the grades. He also won a certificate for perfect attendance.
Now, he was headed for high school. However, the “class prophet” in the yearbook predicted that Hong was on his way to the “presidency of China.”