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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in Spokane: Juries award $1,500 to parents of boy who died from rabies and family of girl who fell in Hutton Building elevator shaft

The parents of a boy who died from rabies and the parents of a girl who fell 75 feet down an elevator shaft were each awarded $1,500 by juries in separate civil trials, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on May 17, 1919. (Spokesman-Review archives)

The parents of a boy who died from rabies and the parents of a girl who fell 75 feet down an elevator shaft were each awarded $1,500 by juries in separate civil trials.

Levi W. Hutton, was sued by the family of Virginia Getty, who fell 75 feet in an elevator shaft in the Hutton Building the previous October.

A jury rejected a claim of $20,000 after a trial the previous month. But a judge later ordered a new trial.

The girl, who was 5 at the time of the accident, had been participating in the production of “Trampled Truth,” a movie created by the Washington Motion Picture Corp., which was based at Minnehaha Park.

The movie company at one time was hailed as the start of what could become a thriving industry in Spokane, but was now in receivership.

The other case, coincidentally, involved the man who was named the receiver of the corporation, F.K. McBroom, after the movie company faltered. He was sued by city Detective Lee Markwood whose son, Samuel Arthur Markwood, contracted rabies and died after he was bitten in September by a dog owned by William Cooper. He was an actor who was working at the Minnehaha Park studio. The boy died on Thanksgiving.

McBroom denied knowing the the dog had been at the studio.

From the military beat: The war department took “definite action toward the establishment” of a National Guard “aero squadron in Spokane.”

That was according to a letter from Major Gen. J. Mel. Carter to Lt. Harold Pitts, one of the organizers of the Spokane squadron.

Carter said, however, that there would be no money to take further action until Congress appropriated funds.

From the veteran beat: The Rev. S. Wilson, a black minister in Spokane, said that a new group of black veterans of World War I was forming across the country but that a chapter had not yet been started in Spokane.

“So far we have not undertaken the organization of a local chapter, although there are a number of Spokane boys in the service,” Wilson said.

From the pavement beat: The city engineer outlined streets that needed to be paved to complete “the city’s system of improved streets and boulevards.” Among them: Third Avenue between Arthur and Sherman streets to improve the connection between downtown and Liberty Park; Monroe Street from Cora to Garland avenues; Garland from Monroe to Wall streets; 17th Avenue between Perry and Ray streets to “open up the Lincoln Heights district to the rest of the city”; and 25th Avenue from Grand Boulevard to Lincoln Street.

Jim Kershner is on sabbatical.