Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Some land-hungry bachelor farmers were suddenly interested in “getting acquainted with Indian girls who had good allotments” on the Colville Indian Reservation.

Under a treaty agreement, tribal members had been allotted parcels of land. Others were receiving cash disbursements.

The federal Indian agent on the Colville said he had received two letters from men, one from California and one from Oregon, seeking Indian wives.

“I did not answer either of the letters,” said the agent, “because I did not think the department would approve of my conducting a matrimonial bureau.”

From the gambling beat: Spokane police conducted a “sensational” raid on a Chinese gambling den on Front Street (now Spokane Falls Boulevard). Tipped off by what police called a rival Tong gang, police battered down a door and arrested 10 men for gambling.

They also found a secret passage, which police theorized had been prepared in case of a coming Tong war. They found a “huge dagger, driven into a table.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1858: Accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”