Ditmar: Wheat Queen of the Big Bend

Josephine Winchell was born in Hood River, Ore., in 1863.

Seventeen years later she married William Ditmar, 25. They claimed a quarter in 1880 and homesteading in 1886. They also claimed a timber culture in 1889, but this was not proved until 1898.

In 1893, they were divorced. Josephine got custody of the five boys and the homestead quarter, horses, and farm equipment to support them. William was to pay off their debts.

William remarried and worked the timber culture quarter. He earned enough to be able to purchase some more land. Josephine sued him for an additional $4000 for additional child support.

The trial was long and tedious going into the details of her expenses and need for support. At 10:30 p.m. on a Friday, the case was sent to the jury. (In those days, the count was in session only a few days each year). After deliberating “all night” the jury was hung.

Josephine sold the original homestead and bought a place southeast of Gravelle. She prospered and soon had acquired more land. By 1911, she was farming 978 acres and was claiming she owned more land in the Big Bend than any other woman and proclaiming to be the “Wheat Queen” of the Big Bend. (It is hard to know if that claim is true or not.)

The newspapers of the day reported hotel guests, and Josephine was a frequent visitor to Spokane, again proclaiming not just her name, but also her title. She was prosperous and bought a “high speed” Cadillac in 1912.

She probably rode the wave of good crops and high prices during World War I and bought more land.

The wheat market collapsed in 1919 and her fortune reversed. She was having trouble making payments on her mortgages and the banks needed to collect. The farm was under receivership in 1922.

What was she to do?

Vertical integration of farm produce was one way to make farming more profitable. Making a prohibited product, even more profitable. She turned to bootlegging.

Washington state begin alcohol prohibition in 1915 ahead of national prohibition in 1920. There are rumors that she supplied the Davenport Hotel in Spokane with spirits.

All was good until September 1923, when a visitor to Colville’s Garage in Reardan inquired about directions to the Ditmar place for the purchase of moonshine. William Colville was not the right person to ask, as he was also the town marshal.

A sheriff’s raid was organized. In the process of arresting Josephine a gallon jug of moonshine was smashed, where by she remarked, “Now where is your evidence.” There was five barrels of mash in a loft over a chicken house, a still and various other bottles of moonshine around the farm.

She was arrested and convicted. While in prison, 1,200 acres of her land were sold to H. G. Burns, a Reardan banker. Locals petitioned the governor who pardoned her after serving four of six months in prison.

She died in 1933 at age 69 and is buried with a pretentious headstone in Spokane.

Her former husband died two years later and is buried with a more common headstone in the same cemetery.

— Kirk Carlson is a local historian affiliated with the Lincoln County Museum in Davenport.