Arson strikes 1926 Reardan

REARDAN - On the morning of Aug. 3, 1926, two sisters, Amy and Myrtle Shipman, telephone operators for the Interstate Telephone Company and daughters of the owners of the Inland Hotel in Reardan where they were living, were awakened by the crackling sounds of fire.

They quickly raised the alarm.

The fire destroyed the two-story brick building known as the Bowie Block where the fire started. It housed Hanel's Pioneer Drug Store and Sherman S. Bentley's General Store on the first floor and rooms on the second floor that housed dentists, lawyers and the Masons and Eastern Star lodges. It also destroyed nearby wood-framed businesses including the Inland Hotel, Finrow's General Store and the Reardan Gazette.

The fire was intense enough to break plate glass windows in the building across Lake Street and cause some heat damage to the Farmers State Bank. It was reported that the fire caused $50,000 damage.

This was the second fire in the same building in 10 days, which stirred suspicions. Investigators determined that the fire had started in two rooms at the same time and that an accelerant was used.

The building was owned by 27-year-old George Snyder of Seattle, who acquired the title from his father Martin, in a trade. Martin was seen around the building two days prior and was arrested for arson.

It was reported that the building was in poor condition and needed repairs. George had taken out an insurance policy for what prosecutors felt was in excess of its value.

On March 3, 1927, a Lincoln County jury convicted Martin of arson with a sentence of two years in the state penitentiary.

His son, George was not tried because prosecutors could not tie his presence to the county at the time of the fire.

Martin appealed his conviction and in Jan. 1928 the Washington State Supreme Court granted him a new trial because the trial judge didn't read a statement provided by the defense as part of jury instructions that the Court thought might impact the outcome.

After nearly a year of preparation, the county prosecutors announced that it was too difficult to re-assemble the witnesses and would not retry the case.

In Nov. 1927, George sued the Equitable Fire and Marine Insurance company and the American Fire Insurance company for the value of his $25,000 policy in federal court. The insurance companies refused to pay because they stated that the fire was of incendiary origins and there was an arson conviction in the case.

This case was tried on June 30, 1928 and the jury found for George $27,000, since the arson conviction was overturned at that time.

On the morning of Nov. 18, 1926, three men who apparently walked to Reardan from Spokane broke into a skylight of the Reardan Farmers State Bank in the early morning hours. They waited until a high school aged janitor, William Hanel, entered the bank to clean it.

They held Hanel until others arrived who could open the safe. Eventually they also held the head cashier E. G. Ahrens, assistant cashier King Kernigan, bookkeeper Lyle Beavers, and customer Otto Wegner.

The robbers took nearly $37,000 of bonds and $2,800 cash. They took off by foot planning to steal a car for their getaway. The weighty bags of coins and bulky securities quickly proved too much so they hid their booty in the coal room of the Washington Grain and Milling Company on the west side of town.

They proceeded to walk north across the dry lakebed.

James Kelly and Bob Williams were quickly apprehended by a posse. They admitted their guilt and within 24 hours were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in the state penitentiary.

Most of the loot was recovered except for the cash. The third bandit, known as "Blackie," believed to be desperate and dangerous, was not caught as the search for him was abandoned due to cold and blinding snow.

Aftermath

In 1927 a "Blackie" MacDonald was arrested in Troy, Montana for shooting Miss Jean Stanley twice. He was a previous inmate in Walla Walla. It is not known if this is the same man as the Reardan robber.

The two banks in Reardan, the Reardan National Bank and the Farmers State Bank, went through failed merger talks. Both banks were bought out by the Old National Bank in 1930.

The Reardan Gazette quickly replaced its printing equipment and continued printing a weekly paper until 1936 while briefly publishing the Edwall Gazette between 1930 and 1931.

Hanel's Pioneer Drug Store managed to stay in business for several years. For a time, it was located in the brick building on the north side of U.S. Highway 2 before moving inside the Lincoln Mutual #2 store (now the R Store).

Finrow's, the Inland Hotel and the Bowie Block did not rebuild.

Sometime in the 1940s a restaurant was built on the site of the fire. This restaurant, known as Red's and later the Ranch House, burned down in 1957 and was rebuilt again. It stands vacant today with its last name, The HiWay Cafe.

The Farmers State Bank was remodeled into the fire station by 1960 with parts of the original building, locally made and fire tested Hansen concrete blocks, lasting into the 1980's.

The origin of the Bowie Building is not clear. There were two Bowie families living around Reardan.

Neil Bowie homesteaded just south of the Reardan Butte and his brother John farmed north of Reardan. Both men and their families lived their lives here, but were buried in their native Collingwood, Ontario.