A Mother with a Rifle: Newport Woman Shoots Intruder Who Broke In
Mrs. O. F. Allen, alone with seven children on a ranch east of Newport, fought off a drunken man who forced his way into the house and shot him twice before the constable could be summoned.
Monday night between 11 and 12 o'clock, Mrs. O. F. Allen, who lives with her family of seven little children on the Nagle ranch three-quarters of a mile east of town, was awakened by the noise of a man breaking into the house. She recognized the voice demanding admission as that of a man named Donaghan. Donaghan demanded that she come downstairs, but on her refusal to do so asked that he might have some blankets to sleep on the floor. With this request she was complying, and while handing down the blankets from upstairs he seized her arm and dragged her to the lower floor. A fierce struggle followed, in which she managed to free herself and escaped to the upper floor, taking with her a .45-70 rifle. Donaghan attempted to follow her and she fired at him twice as he reached the top of the stairs, one bullet entering his right arm about at the elbow and coming out at the shoulder and the other going through his shoulder, the two coming out very close together. He fell to the floor below and one of the children came to town after Constable Newsome, who took the man in charge and summoned medical assistance for him. The bullets made nasty wounds and the man is in a serious condition. He was taken to Sandpoint Tuesday noon by Constable Newsome, where his injuries are being treated at the county hospital. If he recovers the courts will mete out to him what he deserves. Donaghan was a very penitent man the next morning and admitted that he had got what he deserved. The plucky woman is entitled to much credit for the brave fight she put up in defense of her home and honor. Donaghan had been drinking and resorted to desperate means to accomplish his purpose. His entrance into the house was made by chopping in a window after he had failed in the attempt to chop in the door. He has been working at the Falls and other places in this vicinity for several months. The repulse and injuries he suffered should serve as a warning to others of his stamp about town.
“The plucky woman is entitled to much credit for the brave fight she put up in defense of her home and honor.”
A woman alone with seven children defending her home with a rifle is a frontier stereotype, but the detail here is more modern: a rural household without immediate police protection, a drunken intruder, and a community forced to improvise justice. Today the same questions about domestic safety, rural policing and self-defense still divide Newport and the Inland Northwest.
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