Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years

After a frantic eight-day search, Blanche Chamberlain, 14, was found “drugged and dazed” on a patch of bare ground outside Kettle Falls, said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Her mother had earlier reported that three men had enticed the girl from her home and hid her. During the ordeal, her parents received a letter, apparently written by Blanche, which said she was “happy.”

The letter also said, “Don’t look for me, for you will never find me, and if you do, you will bring me home cold and stiff for I will kill myself first.”

The Chronicle reported that the men eventually drugged and abandoned her.

Meanwhile, The Spokesman-Review had a different take on the story. According to the girl’s testimony, she left home under a prearranged plan to meet her sweetheart, a 25-year-old Kettle Falls man. The plan was to go to Oregon and get married.

He didn’t follow through on that plan. He took her to the home of some friends. Then they took her to a swamp. The men finally told her to head north and go home. She walked 15 miles through snow and rain before she collapsed.

The 25-year-old was under arrest for abduction.

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(From the Associated Press)

1830: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, N.Y.