100 years ago in Spokane: Motors replace horses at another fire station

From our archives, 100 years ago

The inexorable rise of the internal combustion engine continued. The Spokane Fire Department purchased a new gasoline-powered pumping engine and hose wagon at Station No. 10, Gordon Avenue and Division Street, “displacing five horses and three men.”

This meant the fire department had horses at only three of its 11 stations. The fire chief said that “we can discontinue the use of horses entirely next year.”

From the business beat: A new financial institution, the Lincoln Trust Co. was organized in a meeting at the Davenport Hotel. The president was Marion E. Hay, a former Washington governor.

The new institution would “combine the work of a building and loan association, a life insurance company and all of the departments of a trust company, except commercial banking.”

From the immigration beat: A Seattle lumberman, Louis E. Lorti, was arrested for “smuggling thousands of Chinese into the United States.”

Immigration officials said Lorti was “backed by a wealthy syndicate of Chinese.”

The smuggling operation had been going on for years. The scheme was discovered when the agency learned that a launch with 14 Chinese aboard had left Vancouver, intending to land at the Seattle waterfront. The Chinese were “bundled like sacks of merchandise” into a waiting automobile and taken to Seattle’s Chinatown. It was intercepted by police, who also found $9,000 worth opium in the auto.