100 years ago in Green Bluff: A 40-year age difference led to a court case after a teen girl’s parents intervened

Tue., May 23, 2023

By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

Would Edna Neff, 16, of Green Bluff, be allowed to marry Truman Persons, 56, also of Green Bluff?

Not if Neff’s parents had their way. They had forbidden the marriage, because of the 40-year age difference. They obtained a courthouse writ to stop it.

Yet this was only a temporary stay. A Superior Court judge scheduled a hearing for later in the week, in which Persons “must appear and give reasons why he should marry Miss Neff.”

Edna had left home and was currently staying with friends in Hillyard while the situation was resolved.

From the robbery beat: A Spokane man claimed that he was robbed by a bandit who brandished “a cannon … the longest gun I ever saw.”

The bandit accosted him near his home, ordered him to put his hands up and robbed him of $50 cash.

When the investigating officer asked if the gun resembled the officer’s long black six-shooter, the victim replied, “Say, man, that is just a toy compared to the gun that bird had.”

From the resort beat: The Liberty Lake resort and dance pavilion was ready to open for the summer season, and the manager believed it would be the biggest season yet.

He had redecorated the pavilion, painted the boats and set out new picnic tables on the beach.

He hired a new six-piece band, Les Taylor’s Moosicers, to provide the dance numbers.

Two of the Moosicers sported names that would have fit quite well in rock bands of later decades: Rolly Starr and John Mustard.

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