Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Sister Bilkiss, aka Flora M. Bilkiss, Spokane’s most famous street evangelist, was arrested on a grand larceny warrant.

John Henderson, of St. John, accused her of stealing $40. 

Henderson said he gave $40 to a young woman of Bilkiss’ Gideon Bible band during a street religious service. He was drunk at the time.

Henderson claimed he gave it to her for safekeeping because he was being followed by two shady men. He claimed he told her he would call for the money the next morning.

The next morning, he went to the Gideon headquarters to claim his money, and Bilkiss refused to return it.

Bilkiss told a different story. She said the man gave the money to one of the sisters as a “free-will offering.” The next day, he had a change of heart and demanded his money back. Bilkiss had no intention of returning it.

“Do churches return the donations they receive?” she said.

Sister Bilkiss was released on her own recognizance.

From the marriage beat: A wheat-themed wedding took place at the Gipsy Scott Ranch near Oakesdale.

Ernest Guyot, a “sack sewer in the threshing crew,” and Irene Whitehead, the crew’s cook, were married “on a pile of sacks of newly threshed grain.”

Threshing operations were suspended during the ceremony and the whole crew gathered around as witnesses. 

Threshing was renewed after the ceremony, with “the groom returning to his sack-sewing and the bride going to the cook wagon to prepare the wedding feast.”