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

100 years ago in the Northwest: Ferry County’s sheriff turned himself in for Prohibition violations

 (S-R archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

Former Ferry County Sheriff Thomas Barker turned himself in to federal authorities and began serving a two-year sentence in federal prison.

In the words of a Spokesman-Review headline, it was because he had been a “notorious liquor gang leader” – while he was still sheriff.

He “conspired with others to maintain a system under which liquor-runners would have free passage through the country.” He charged bootleggers $1 a case for his services.

Barker was tried twice, but the first trial ended without a verdict. He was reelected sheriff between the first trial and the second trial. He was stripped of his office after a legal ruling from Olympia.

He vowed to appeal the guilty verdict in his second trial, but he had now abandoned his appeal.

From the gold beat: Word arrived of a sensational gold strike at the I.X.L. Mine in Rossland, British Columbia.

The strike was so rich that “a railroad refuses to guarantee its safe delivery,” said a correspondent in Nelson.

The richness of the samples “amazed the few permitted to see them.”

One account said “the yellow metal lies like butter on bread.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1937: General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist troops conquer Santander during the Spanish Civil War.

1981: Voyager 2 takes photos of Saturn’s moon Titan.

1996: President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law.