100 years ago in Spokane: A local resident drowned in a fishing boat accident, a railroad merger was looming and the city’s injured sole woman pilot was showing more signs of recovery

Roy Van Hooser, 35, of Spokane, drowned in Puget Sound when his boat – a fishing cannery tender – was rammed by the Canadian Pacific ocean liner Princess Charlotte.

He was “swept from the heavily loaded fishing smack by the force of the impact,” along with two other men. The other two were rescued, but Van Hooser vanished beneath the waves before rescue boats could reach him.

The accident occurred in heavy fog.

From the railroad beat: A railroad merger of significance to Spokane was in the works.

The president of the Great Northern railroad said the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and Burlington railroads were planning to consolidate into one large system, if permitted to do so by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Spokane was a hub for both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific.

The Great Northern president said a merger would result in significant savings for each railroad and “would insure the consolidated system against vicissitudes, such as business depressions and crop failures.”

The three railroads were already closely intertwined, and had previously attempted to merge in 1904. But the Supreme Court ruled that they must be operated independently.

The commission planned to hold more hearings about the merger over the coming months.

This merger would eventually reach fruition, but far later than anyone expected. In 1970, the railroads consolidated as the Burlington Northern Railroad.

From the aviator beat: Daisy Smith, Spokane’s sole woman aviator, was now “conscious all of the time and rational during the greater part of the time.”

Doctors were more optimistic about her recovery, but she was not out of the woods. She had suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries in a plane crash a week earlier at Parkwater.