HUCKLEBERRIES: The house that blew up

LeeAnn Kohli Cheeley didn’t hear of her family’s tragedy during her formative years.

“It wasn’t something they told me as a child,” LeeAnn said. “It was kind of violent.”

On April 15, 1907, LeeAnn’s great-great-grandfather, Jabez Riden Williams, and his son, Walter, suffered catastrophic, fatal injuries while thawing dynamite in a kitchen stove.

“It’s not a grief to me,” LeeAnn told Huckleberries. “I didn’t know any of these people. I thought it was morbidly cool that my family had this history in Coeur d’Alene.”

In the 1990s, LeeAnn, her husband, Chris, and their growing family lived in the two-story, wood-framed house at 11th Street and Birch Avenue for seven years after inheriting it. The seven Cheeley children — five boys and two girls — knew about the family disaster. 

The 1907 Coeur d'Alene Press reported the details in a same-day story headlined: "Deadly Work of Dynamite — Wrecks Home, Kills Son and Maims Father." 

At 5 a.m. on that fateful Monday, J.R. Williams, 61, started a fire to thaw five or six sticks of dynamite — about 2 pounds — to use to remove tree stumps on his small farm at the edge of town. He’d become a well-respected businessman here after moving his family from South Dakota about four years earlier.

A half hour later, he awakened his son to help him.

Walter, 36, was removing the dynamite from the overheated stove when it exploded.

The younger Williams suffered the full impact of the blast that destroyed the kitchen, rattled the house and mangled his face. The unfortunate man also lost his right hand and his left arm at the elbow. His father, who was sitting in a nearby chair, suffered serious facial cuts, a lost eye and a broken leg.

Meanwhile, family members upstairs narrowly escaped injury.

Daughter Blanche had just stepped into the bathroom when the detonation wrecked her bedroom above the kitchen. Another Williams son, Byron, and his attorney brother-in-law, Ezra Whitla (LeeAnn Cheeley’s great-grandfather), were dressing.

Byron Williams and Whitlaw encountered smoke so thick as they rushed downstairs that they thought the house was on fire. They found the victims covered in plaster and debris.

Walter Williams lived an hour more. The elder Williams regained consciousness but died five days later.

The double funeral Sunday, April 21, 1907, was described by the Coeur d’Alene Press as the “largest and saddest” ever held in the pioneer town. Some 1,000 mourners attended the services that started at the Williams property and ended at Forest Cemetery.

“My grandmother (Mary Whitla Branson) was born in the house that was blown up,” LeeAnn Cheeley said. “She lived there her whole life. I wished it had stayed in the family.”

Mother, may I?

The locals embraced the original Earth Day with open arms April 22, 1970.

At Post Falls Junior High, students scheduled a trash pickup along city streets to launch the observance. And Mrs. Bill Gundlach’s Sherman School Twittering Bluebirds planned to clean garbage from the Coeur d’Alene waterfront.

But Mother Nature didn’t cooperate.

She greeted the day here with snow and then intermittent rain.

“You would have thought that she would cooperate,” grumped reporter John House of the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Most, but not all, planned school activities were moved inside. But hearty female employees at the Coeur d’Alene National Forest supervisor’s office persisted with their litter patrol. And five Coeur d’Alene students biked to their school, St. George’s in Spokane, to promote clean energy.

In other words, the show staggered on.

And reporter House interpreted the foul weather as Mother Nature’s way of saying: “Thanks for the help, but you’re a little late!”

Bert, Ernie reunion

It’s not often that a plastic pig makes national headlines.

But that’s what happened in 1985 when the pigskin partner of a Post Falls version of Bert and Ernie went missing.

Bert, a black-and-white replica swine 3 feet long, and Ernie, an artificial horse, were reunited after a weekend apart April 14, 1985. Seems a thief had stolen Bert from his post at Randy Wells’s Trading Post.

The story gained national attention when Randy offered $100 (or $297 in today’s dollars) for the porker’s return. Randy told The Press: “The horse hasn’t been the same since somebody took the pig.”

A few days later, Randy was tipped off that Bert could be found on Idaho Street six telephone poles north of Poleline Avenue. A note from “Jesse James” was attached to the pig: “Had no intentions of keeping Bert permanently. Just needed Bert’s services for our sow Bertha. Let’s hope our wiener pigs grow up to be as famous as Bert.”

Owner Wells said all would be forgiven if he got the pick of the litter.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: First clouds, then sun, then rain and snow/in quick succession come and go/and thus we have the springtime’s way —/three months of weather in one day – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Spring Day”).

• School Blahs: Believe it or not, 35 years ago, incoming families with kids avoided the Coeur d’Alene School District. Bad facilities, personnel shakeups and inability to pass bond issues scared prospective buyers away. That all changed in 1992 when voters OK’d a $16.9 million bond to build Lake City High and ease crowding at Coeur d’Alene High. Today, the Coeur d’Alene district boundaries may be too attractive.

• Retired: On May 1, 1970, Frances Cope retired from an unmatched career of 44 years (1926-70) in the Coeur d’Alene Press newsroom. A daughter of Coeur d’Alene pioneers, Frances worked as a proofreader, reporter and photographer before she was promoted in 1963 by Duane Hagadone to become the paper’s first female editor. In a 1979 interview, the retiree said her gender helped more than hurt during her career.

• Rogue’s Gallery: Credit Mayor Jim Fromm, 1982-85, for assigning aide Bud Schmidt to round up photos of all Coeur d’Alene mayors by the 1985 Fourth of July. Incorporated as a village in August 1887 and as a city in 1906, Coeur d'Alene was run by trustees until April 20, 1907, when its first mayor, Dr. Hugh V. Scallon, and a council took office. Staffer Schmidt was still looking for photos of Scallon and five other mayors April 19, 1985. 

Parting shot

On April 18, 1955, 871 first and second graders from Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Dalton Gardens, Post Falls and Greenacres received their first Salk polio vaccines from local health officials. Six doctors and 11 nurses administered the shots to combat the dreaded viral disease. The children were scheduled for a second dose May 16. Jonas Salk’s life-saving vaccine had been licensed six days before, leading to widespread celebration around the country from families terrified by the unpredictable disease that often led to paralysis and death. Mass vaccinations in 1955 marked the beginning of the end of polio cases in this country. Today, of course, some would vilify Salk as a Commie and condemn his medical miracle.

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D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    Walter Williams
  

    Chris and LeeAnn Cheeley with four of their six children in the 1990s at the family home, 1102 N. Birch St.
  

    Vicky Jones of Hayden, left, and Ladonna Allen of Coeur d’Alene Mid High gather litter despite bad weather for Earth Day 1970.
  

    Randy Wells reunites with porker Bert in April 1985.
  

    Realtor Lee Ann Beeks found properties hard to sell within the Coeur d’Alene School District in April 1990.
  

    Veteran Coeur d'Alene Press newswoman Frances Cope retired May 1, 1970.
  

    Seven former Coeur d’Alene mayors are shown in this group photo, published in The Press on April 19, 1985, from left: John Wood, R.S. Nelson, C.H. Potts, L.L. Gardner, H.P. Glindeman, Jack Adams and Oscar Edmonds.
  

    Lester Bender, 8, son of Deputy and Mrs. John Bender, is held by Mrs. Norman Spellman while Dr. W.W. Wilson administers a polio shot April 18, 1955.