From our archives, 75 years ago The proverbial groundhog had little chance of burrowing through the snow in 1937. The town of Latah in southeastern Spokane County was particularly hard hit. In fact, it had been cut off from the outside world for four days and had run out of bread, butter and fresh meat.
From our archives, 100 years ago A crowd of hundreds of Wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World) confronted Spokane police in a tense confrontation that recalled the Free Speech Fight two years earlier.
From our archives, 50 years ago The head of the Spokane County sheriff’s juvenile division said he knew what was to blame for creating so many “punks” and “dropouts”: the automobile.
From our archives, 100 years ago Secretary of War Henry Stimson shocked Spokane by proposing the closure of 16 Army posts, including Fort George Wright. He said he wanted to “put an end to extravagance and inefficiency” and concentrate the Army in a few larger posts.
From our archives, 100 years ago The “banned” play, “The Devil,” went on as scheduled at the American Theater in Spokane – despite the fact that Mayor Hindley had declared the play “unmoral” and issued an edict banning it.
From our archives, 100 years ago A family tragedy unfolded in Moscow, Idaho, after a 17-year-old girl attended a church revival meeting against the wishes of her father.
From our archives, 100 years ago The exuberant kids of Spokane got a little too exuberant during the snow-covered January of 1912 – and the city authorities moved to put a stop to their fun.
From our archives, 100 years ago Sensational new details about the Margaret Armstrong-George Howell marriage emerged from a Los Angeles courtroom. Armstrong’s attorney accused Howell of being a “fortune hunter” and of marrying Armstrong for her money. Right after he married her, Howell convinced her to sell her flourishing Spokane florist business.
From our archives, 100 years ago The doomed romantic saga of Margaret Armstrong took another dramatic twist in a Los Angeles courtroom. She was the Spokane businesswoman and florist whose sudden marriage had caused a sensation several months earlier.
From our archives, 100 years ago Mayor Hindley and his committee of theatrical censors attended a rehearsal of “The Devil” at the American Theater – and banned it.
From our archives, 100 years ago The Spokane Social Science Club learned the alarming fact that 200 elementary schoolchildren in Spokane come to school “without a sufficient breakfast” or no breakfast at all.
From our archives, 100 years ago E.S. Dowling, a Spokane mining engineer, had just returned from an exploratory trek to the Canadian Arctic, and he had some harrowing stories to tell.
From our archives, 100 years ago The farm town of Thornton, Wash., south of Rosalia, was in an uproar over the arrest of three young men, ages 17 to 20, for eating peanuts and generally failing to be sufficiently pious during a church revival meeting.
From our archives, 100 years ago The Spokane Ad Club sponsored an art contest to create an image of a fictional “Miss Spokane” to serve as a symbol of the city.
From our archives, 100 years ago The Spokane Chamber of Commerce held its annual banquet, and this ever- positive group of boosters was in particularly optimistic form.
From our archives, 100 years ago Police were startled to discover that not one woman was a prisoner of the Spokane City Jail. When a crew of mission workers came to the jail to conduct the usual Sunday services “for fallen women,” they found none.
From our archives, 100 years ago The Rev. Cora Kincannon Smith, Spokane’s leading spiritualist, claimed to be performing remarkable feats of psychic power.
From our archives, 100 years ago Rattlesnake Pete’s lost love, Nellie Lane, finally surfaced in Spokane. But now it was Rattlesnake Pete who had vamoosed.
From our archives, 100 years ago Miners Joe Spellgati and Joe Bisigh were on their way to work at the Idora Mine outside of Wallace when they heard an ominous, thundering noise.
From our archives, 100 years ago Spokane businessmen initiated a drive that sounds familiar to modern ears: Buy local and eat local. The Buying-at-Home League held a grand banquet at the Hotel Spokane in which everything from “cocktails to cigars to confections” was made in Spokane territory.
From our archives, 100 years ago An official of Spokane’s city health department declared war on a serious threat to the morals of Spokane’s boys and girls: public dance halls.
From our archives, 100 years ago Spokane was suffering through a severe cold snap, with the temperature hitting 10 below zero at Manito Park. Meanwhile, doctors and various other busybodies raised a new public health concern: low-necked dresses for women.
From our archives, 100 years ago Miss Marjorie Harkness, the penny arcade box-office clerk who became locally famous for testifying against her boss, landed a new job using the same skills – acting – that made her such a fine short-change artist.
