A Conviction, a Quick Marriage, and a Town's License Protest
E. T. Montgomery was convicted of criminal intimacy with his stepdaughter and released on bail. When his new wife kept running the hotel and saloon at Elk, residents asked Spokane County to deny the license.
E. T. Montgomery, of Elk, who was convicted of criminal intimacy with his stepdaughter, Esther North, is out on bail. His wife, to whom he was married after being arrested, has been running the hotel and saloon at Elk. The residents of the town have filed a remonstrance with the Spokane County authorities, asking that a license not be granted to the Montgomerys after the present license expires.
“The residents of the town have filed a remonstrance with the Spokane county authorities, asking that a license be not granted to the Montgomerys after the present license expires.”
Then as now, a small town's liquor license was one of the few levers residents had over a business they considered dangerous. The case also shows how private harm could become a public fight over who got to hold a license, while the victim remained at the margins of the story. Modern debates over licensing, bail, and accountability still ask what a community should do when it believes a business is run by someone who has done harm.
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