100 years ago in Spokane: A longtime laundryman was going back to China, but not without leaving a lasting impact

Lee Hoo, a Spokane laundryman for 36 years, was ready to make a momentous move.

He was sailing back to his native China to stay.

He had two very good reasons to return. His wife was waiting for him in the city of Sun Ning. She apparently never followed him to America, although he went back to visit her at least twice. The second reason: His health had been poor and he told reporters that his purpose was to “go home – maybe die.”

Lee Hoo, known to his American friends as Charley, came to Spokane in 1885 when it was still a small town. He opened a laundry at Second Avenue and Monroe Street that became a thriving business. He later expanded to larger quarters downtown.

Tai Gee, the honorary “mayor” of Spokane’s Chinatown, said that Charley “had made more friends among his countrymen and his customers than any other” member of the Chinese community. They liked his “honesty, good work and faithfulness.”

He embarked on the Milwaukee Road train to Seattle, along with a brother and two nephews, and was booked on a voyage across the Pacific later in the week.

From the booze beat: Sandpoint police raided a soft drink establishment on South Main – and discovered that the drinks were not soft at all.

Officers confiscated more than 30 quarts of moonshine, “the largest haul in Sandpoint for some years.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1822: Florida became a United States territory.