Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Several other people from Malta, Montana, stepped forward to identify Carl Brandon as a prominent Malta businessman.

Brandon, a grocer, was the mystery man who had walked into a Spokane police station several days earlier and asked help in “finding himself.” He said he had amnesia and no idea who he was or where he had come from.

The latest people to identify Brandon said he had been involved in many civic affairs in Malta. He had one of the nicest houses in town. However, he had taken a train for a business trip five or six weeks ago and disappeared. His wife and their 4-year-old son went to live with her mother.

Brandon said he still remembered nothing about his past. He was a little concerned over the fact that his wife had failed to respond to a telegram sent the day before asking her to come to Spokane and fetch him. However, his Malta friends assured him she was “probably busy preparing for the journey.”

He also was concerned that he would require an introduction when she arrived, since he had failed to recognize any of the other people he evidently knew in Malta.

“He was always of a particularly nervous temperament and friends suggest that this may account for his breakdown,” the newspaper said.