The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1915-08-20
INDIAN WOMAN DROWNED

rrlday morning a young lad no,,,o,
cooper while crossing the rai,roo,
bridge that spans the Okanogon IT.,
cast Oh town discovered the body of g
woman lodged against one of N,
pies supporting that structure IT,
informed a man by the name of Cod,
Vi the CHASTITY discovery, and Cody =,
once came to town and sought ou,
Marshal Case. The officer renairof
10 the bridge with Undertaken Barne.
ana number of others, the body wa,
removed from the water and provad
TO be that of an Indian woman so,re
40 years of age, the wife of an Indian
known as John Wells, living n few
miles east Of town.
The remains were taken to tho
Barnes morgue and there examined
AT first, owing to the presence Of
bruises on the forehead it was thought
that the dead woman had met with
FOUL play, but Isabelle Rinehart q
fprepossessing and intelligent half
breed girl, cleared away all suspicions
by straightforward account Of how
the drowning occurred as far as II
was possible to conjecture, as neither
she, nor anyone else, actually wit
messed the accident.
There is an Indian habitation and
general rendezvous on the east side
or the river, not far from where the
body was found. The Rhinehart girl
was at this house last Tuesday night
She stated that the Wells woman. who
was her aunt arrived at the house at
an early hour Wednesday morning of
last week, considerably under the in
nuence of liquor. Shortly after her
| arrival the Wells woman declared she
was going into the river bathing, but
the girl pursuaded her not to do so.
Later the woman insisted upon going
to the river at least to bath her feet
That was the last seen of her until
the body was found Friday morning.
The Rhinehart girl had thought that
her aunt had gone over to town, or
possibly home, but as she failed to
appear by Thursday she became un-
easy and started out to search for her,
of course without success. She ac-
counted for the bruise on the woman 5
face by saying that she and her aunt
had tried to ride horse few days
before and the animal had thrown
them off, her aunt sustaining the in
juries in the fall. After hearing the
Rhinehart version OF the case the
prosecuting attorney and sheriff de-
cided that the drowning was purely
accidental and that an inquest was
unnecessary. 1t is the general sup
position that the woman waded out in
to the water and in her intoxicated
condition fell down and was unable to
regain her footing.
The first news of the tragedy that
spread about town was to the effect
that the body of a woman had been
seen in the river opposite the Pres
byterian church, and number of peo-
pie focked to that part of the stream.
Two or three motor boats put out. One
manned by F. s. Mcdonald and E,
McCammon reached the railroad
bridge about the same time as Marshal
Case and Prentice's motor truck, and
the occupants of the boat brought the
body to the shore. 1t was placed IN
| tie truck and conveyed to Barnes un-
dertaking rooms.
Saturday mornil G, Wells the nus
band of the dead woman, was so drunk
that he was thrown into Jail until he
had sobered off sufficiently to re
move and take charge of the remains
The body was buried near the Rnine-
hart place among the Indian allot-
ments on the hill east of town