100 years ago in Spokane: Thousands turn out for Fourth of July festival, dance, plus a wedding, too

About 3,000 people jammed Trent Avenue for a Fourth of July festival and street dance – and a public wedding.

A. Dubuque of Spokane and Miss Susie Moore of Great Falls, Montana, chose to tie the knot during the patriotic festival. An altar was erected on a truck, and an area was roped off for the wedding party. The Whitney Boy’s Chorus provided the wedding music.

“Near the end of the ceremony, a Milwaukee train moved along, and a wag shouted, ‘There’s the wedding bells!’ ” the article recounts.

After the wedding, the street was cleared for dancing, with music by the Simmons Band.

From the fireworks beat: Not all of the Fourth of July news was so festive. A house burned down on Elm Street and the cause was listed as “boys and firecrackers.” The house burned for two hours before firefighters were able to extinguish it.

On Wall Street, a store awning was ignited by Roman candles. The blaze was quickly extinguished before it damaged the brick store.

From the loco weed file: The so-called “loco weed” which killed 500 sheep near Nine Mile was probably lupine, according to the county farm expert.

Livestock do not normally eat lupine, yet “if they are hungry, they eat the seeds,” he said. This causes them to bloat and die.

Another deadly plant common in some places was what the expert called “white camas,” probably referring to death camas.