Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The saga of Mr. and Mrs. Hope and their explosive marital struggles in a remote cabin near Northport, Wash., had a surprise conclusion. Mrs. Hope was acquitted of all charges and freed.

She was not the one who planted dynamite beneath the cabin and set it off. She said it was Mr. Hope who pulled that stunt. She said she walked out of the barn “in time to see the debris still flying in the air and Hope outside with all his clothes and hat on.” He had earlier claimed he was inside sleeping when the explosion went off.

They had never been legally married but had lived in something approaching harmony for years – partly because he was off working in the mines. She, meanwhile, tended the crops and livestock. But then one day they had a “devil of a row” over the rights to the homestead.

“He threw me off the porch and threw a coffeepot full of water at me,” she said.

The judge had earlier instructed the jury that, because of the evidence, they could not convict her of anything more serious than third-degree assault. The jury refused to convict her even of that.

On acquittal, Mrs. Hope said she would file suit against Hope for $75 a month back wages for all the time she toiled as his housekeeper.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1955: Following word that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had suffered a heart attack, the New York Stock Exchange saw its worst price decline since 1929.