Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

A gaily decorated steamer fleet arrived at The Dalles-Celilo Canal entrance,  part of a dayslong celebration of the opening of navigation to the sea.

“At Big Eddy today, the thousands who thronged the waterfront saw the significance of the completed canal beautifully symbolized by a ceremony in which young women from far distant points, as sponsors of principal tributaries of the Columbia in the Inland Empire, emptied bottles of water brought from those rivers into the whirling currents of the Columbia as they struggle free from the terrific rapids the canal has conquered,” wrote a clearly overcome correspondent. “Miss Wilma Donnell of The Dalles gracefully ruled the occasion as river queen” as “the chosen young women daintily performed their offices from a decorated platform erected on the brink of the rapids.”

From the love and money beat:  An unusual stipulation in a relative’s will put Miss Martha Derby in a quandary. She was set to inherit $30,000, but only if she stayed single until she was 55. She was 47. If married, she would have to divide the $30,000 with two other women. 

But she did wish to marry. She offered the other women $1,250 each if they would release their claims and let her get married. An attorney said the two women had agreed that letting her get married was the right thing to do.

A Spokane judge was pondering whether to sign off on the deal.