100 years ago in Spokane: Local woman Flora Watson died from tuberculosis, but her cultist friends hoped to bring her back to life

Miss Flora Watson, 35, had been dead for more than a week in a tent on North Monroe – yet her friends in a religious cult were still “praying to bring her back to life.”

A member of the Church of Spokane told The Spokesman-Review that groups of “divine healers have prayed over Miss Watson long and earnestly” since she came to Spokane from New York the previous spring to stay with her cousin. When her tuberculosis took a turn for the worse, “the healers prevailed on the sick woman to undergo their ministrations at the tent colony on North Monroe.”

Despite their prayers and “the laying on of hands,” Watson died on October 4.

The healers were not deterred. Days after her death, she remained in the tent. “Some members of the cult called at the Watson home to get the clothes of the dead woman” because they still believed “she would be up and wearing them and doing good in the world in a few days.”

A doctor who had been treating her inquired about her health a few days earlier, and her friends told him that she was “just doing fine.” Yet when he called a few days later, “he was informed that she had been dead nine days and it had been decided to call a doctor.”

Instead, the doctor notified the coroner.

Her aged aunt, who had been caring for her, was reported to be “indignant” when the cult continued efforts to revive Watson. She did not believe in spiritual healing. But her cousin and other family members did.

The coroner arranged for a local undertaker to collect Watson’s body.