Rathdrum’s Culp Family — Part 2
Thomas Culp’s Headstone and Footstone: Thomas P. Culp was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Rathdrum after his murder in October 1898. His parents later sent his brothers, Charles and Joseph, to purchase a headstone. Also purchased was a footstone, a small marker commonly used to mark the bottom boundary of a cemetery plot as seen in this collage of the two markers.
Courtesy of MUSEUM OF NORTH IDAHO
When Part 1 of the Culp Family Story came to a close, it was late 1889. David and Mary Jane Culp were moving their young family from their farm near Helmville, Mont., to Thompson Falls to be closer to schools. Four of the children were of school age: Charles, 10; Joseph, 9; and Thomas, 8. A fifth Culp child, Elizabeth, had joined the family in late December of that year and at less than a year old, was therefore not eligible for schooling for another six years. To house their family, David and Mary Ellen bought a farm a mile north of town where, over the next 13 years, the Culps produced hay, fruit and other crops to sell at the local market.
At 18, Charles was the first of the Culp siblings to leave home. He had been hired by Naegela Printing Company in Helena in early 1897. Perhaps homesick, he moved back home that summer and interned with The Western News in Libby, Mont., a town about 75 miles away.
In 1899, dark tragedy struck the Culp family. Their 17-year-old son, Thomas, left home on an October trip to travel to Libby, likely to visit his brother, Charles. But he never arrived, and his battered body was later found near the Great Northern Depot in Sandpoint, Idaho, lying on a pile of cinders with severe head wounds and a badly scalded leg. Despite efforts to revive him, he died the next day.
Thomas had been found without identification and was initially not identified. Before his burial in Rathdrum’s Pine Grove Cemetery, Kootenai County Coroner Dr. Mark T. Leek took two photos of his body and distributed them along the train route. These photos eventually reached Thompson Falls, where the body was identified as being Thomas around Nov. 11.
In the interim, a coroner’s inquiry was held, and the jury ruled that Thomas had died from a blow to the head with a blunt object, likely inflicted by an unknown assailant. His death was ruled murder, and to this day the case remains unsolved.
David and Mary Jane requested that Thomas’s remains stay in Rathdrum Pine Grove Cemetery instead of being exhumed and transported to Thompson Falls. His brothers later purchased a headstone for his grave.
In late 1900, Charles was hired by Inland Printing Company and moved to Spokane, where he worked until June of 1902. Without explanation, he then returned to Libby and his job at the Montanian. The reason would soon become apparent.
At about the same time that Charles returned home, David and Mary Jane put the Thompson Falls farm up for immediate sale. Asking $2,500 ($94,550 today) for just the farm and buildings, or $3,000 ($116,000 today) if the buyer wanted to buy the existing stock and the home’s furnishings.
It appears the farm sold quickly, because the family was soon loading up for its next move. This time, they would be heading southwest to Rathdrum, the town where Thomas had been buried. That is where the rest of our story will play out next month in Part III of the Culp Family Story — The Tribune Years.
