Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Lem Lindsey, 31, described as a Spokane “Negro barber,” had spent six months in jail for shooting and wounding two men in an altercation at a “Negro club” at 105 E. Sprague.

He had been out of jail only a few hours when several people reported a shot fired at First Avenue and Hilliard Street. Police arrived to find Lindsey sprawled at the foot of the stairs leading to a front door of a house. He had been shot in the temple. The position of the body indicated that he was walking up the steps when he was shot. Empty revolver shells were found nearby.

Lindsey had apparently shown a clergyman a letter that contained a threat to his life. 

Police said the murderer was “at large and unknown.”

From the rescue beat: A girl named Nellie Sullivan was stranded in the rushing Kootenai River near Rexford after her rowboat overturned. She was thrown into the icy waters, but managed to grasp the end of a log protruding from the water and yell for help.

Two brothers saw her predicament and ran nearly 2 miles up the river to find a boat. At considerable danger to themselves, they ran the rapids and managed to get Nellie off the log and into their boat.

She “retained remarkable composure through it all” and was recovering well.