100 years ago in Spokane: Horses headed for action in World War I shipped through Spokane
From our archives, 100 years ago
Spokane was playing a part in the European war – as a major assembly point of horses for the French army.
A stock company out of Miles City, Montana, had just concluded a large contract to supply “150 horses a day until the close of the war.” Those horses were to be sent to Spokane for feeding and care before being shipped to Jersey City, New Jersey., and then on to France.
“Not less than 3,600 a month will be assembled in Spokane,” said the paper.
The horses were for cavalry and artillery use. The same company had already sent 35,000 horses to the English, French and Italian armies.
Testimony from his “hysterical wife and tearful sons” revealed that he had come home that day and told his wife that one of his sons had “contracted a disease and was hopeless.” Shortly afterward, she heard the gunshot.