Tuesday, September 24, 2019

He Discovered The Fire Of '89


Jeanne Coe and I are indexing the obituaries found in the 24 drawers of biographies down at the MAC. This particular one was too interesting not to share. From the Spokesman Review, the date was 22 April 1937.

Harry B. Arnold, the man who is credited with discovering the historic fire of 1889 which destroyed Spokane, then Spokane Falls, is dead.

Mr. Arnold died Tuesday night in his home, W. 713 Dalton, aged 75. Christian Science funeral will be read Friday at 1:30 ......

It was a history-making ride that Mr. Arnold and his young wife, the former Ellis L. Barzee of Turner, Oregon, took that Sunday afternoon of August 4, 1889. Noticing the smoke and flame pouring from the roof of a restaurant, Mr. Arnold stopped his carriage to give the alarm, pointing his whip at the blazing roof. The alarm was spread by another resident whose Sunday afternoon nap on the front porch of his nearby home was interrupted by the newlyweds' cry. 

After the town was destroyed, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold moved to Farmington, where he entered the grain business and became widely known in the Palouse. In 1908 they returned to Spokane, where Mr. Arnold entered the real estate and investment business.

Mr. Arnold was born in the Umpquah Valley, Oregon, on May 17, 1861, and went to Idaho with his grandparents in 1872. When 17 he joined the Second Idaho Volunteers under Captain Franklin McCarrie and served during the Nez Perce Indian uprising. Later he homesteaded near Farmington where he farmed and operated a livery stable several years before he and his wife moved to Spokane Falls in 1889. 

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