100 years ago in Spokane: A heavyweight champ, a skunk farm and ‘the father of Spokane’ were making headlines

Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey was in Spokane to star in his vaudeville act, “Jack Dempsey’s Road Show.”

Local boosters took this as an opportunity to revive a scheme they had floated earlier, in which Dempsey would stage a title fight at the Alan Race Track east of Spokane.

Promoter J.H. Sexsmith said he was opening negotiations with Dempsey’s manager. Dempsey’s trainer pointed out that Winnipeg had already offered $150,000 for a Jack Dempsey-Tom Gibbons match, and that “Spokane might do well to bid $200,000.”

Dempsey himself said only that he would fight anybody, anywhere, “if a sufficient purse is put up.”

From the skunk beat: Grant Harper bought an island in the middle of Sprague Lake and had converted it – to a skunk farm.

He now had 450 skunks, which he was raising for fur. A reporter visited the island and reported the skunks roamed freely around the island, looking “like so many chubby cats.”

“He plans to produce furs as nearly all-black as possible and most of his animals have white only on the tips of the tails and as a top knot on the back of the necks.”

As for the smell, that was apparently not a problem.

“Contrary to what some might expect, there is nothing disagreeable or repulsive about a visit to the island.”

From the pioneer beat: James N. Glover, known as the “Father of Spokane,” suffered an “acute attack” of an unspecified medical nature a day earlier.

He never lost consciousness, but he was reported to in “grave” condition. The Chronicle reported he was close to death.

From the murder beat: Spokane police were now working on the theory that William Moody Wry was murdered by a man who accompanied Wry to Spokane from Canada. Detectives were awaiting information from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, about the identity of Wry’s traveling companion.