100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: The second time was the charm for a moonshine raid at a Mica Peak still

The sheriff raided another big moonshine still on Mica Peak and arrested two bootleggers.

This was actually the second time the sheriff’s deputies had tried to raid the still. The first time, deputies tried to get to the remote location in an auto, but it got stuck in the mud. A farmer had to haul the auto out.

The next day, deputies went up in a wagon. This time, they were successful. Two men tried to run away, but were soon overtaken. The prisoners, “who declared to be Greek,” were taken to jail.

This was a huge operation, with sugar “brought in hundred-pound lots.” The deputies found 43 gallons of moonshine, ready to be distributed.

Because the still was so remote and the roads so muddy, the sheriff ordered all but five gallons of the moonshine to be destroyed. The still could hold 50 gallons of mash at a time.

From the church beat: Father James Rebmann, S.J., celebrated his 50th anniversary in the priesthood. Rebmann was the first “resident Catholic pastor of the city,” having served as the first pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes.

He was “twice elected president of Gonzaga College” (now Gonzaga University) and served as pastor of St. Aloysius Church and St. Anne’s Church.

He was currently the pastor of St. Xavier Church in Lidgerwood, where his golden jubilee was to be celebrated.

Rebmann was born in Speyer, Bavaria, and attended the University of Munich. His religious studies took place in Germany, Holland and Austria.

He arrived in Spokane in 1886 and became Gonzaga’s first president in 1887. Most of his subsequent career was in Spokane, but he also spent several years at the St. Ignatius Mission in Montana, St. Peter’s Mission in Montana and the Church of Immaculate Conception in Seattle.