100 years ago in Spokane: Railroad tycoon DC Corbin’s ashes were getting a new home

The ashes of Spokane railroad tycoon DC Corbin were about to be moved from a vault in the Corbin mansion to a mausoleum.

Why?

Because the Corbin home was about to be converted to a “dietetic sanatorium.”

A few days earlier, a court approved a plan to turn the home into a sanatorium and sell all of the furnishings. Anna Corbin, the millionaire’s widow, had recently been committed to the Eastern Washington Hospital at Medical Lake after a scandal involving a scheme to burn the house down for the insurance money.

Mrs. Corbin had been keeping her husband’s ashes “in a beautiful bronze container on the mantel of the fireplace,” but the urn was apparently moved to the vault after her committal. The trustees of the Corbin estate found the ashes during an inventory of the house’s contents.

From the court beat: Two trials were set to begin during the week. The first was the manslaughter trial of Herman Schultz, a Waterville farmer, accused of running over two men who were repairing their car on a road shoulder near Vera.

Police said Schultz was driving too fast and not looking where he was going.

The second case was a re-trial of Louis Adams (or Adamo) for the murder of Joseph Garascio during a quarrel at a Spokane fruit warehouse. Adams was convicted during an earlier trial, but a new trial was ordered following appeal.