Over the Side of the Ferry Dock
A horse balks at the free ferry landing and takes the buggy — and Mrs. Edith Olson — ten feet down toward the water. She rolled clear with bruises and a smashed rig.
Mrs. Edith Olson and sister, Mrs. Ora McClintock, undertook to drive onto the free ferry Tuesday afternoon and met with an accident which might have terminated seriously. They were driving a single horse, which, being unaccustomed to driving onto the docks, backed off the side. Mrs. McClintock jumped from the rig, but Mrs. Olson went over the side of the dock with the horse and buggy, falling about ten feet. Fortunately Mrs. Olson rolled under the dock, which saved her from having the horse fall on her. She escaped with severe bruises. The rig was badly smashed up.
“Mrs. McClintock jumped from the rig, but Mrs. Olson went over the side of the dock with the horse and buggy, falling about ten feet.”
Newport's free ferry across the Pend Oreille was the everyday link between town and the South Side, and its gangways were no place for a nervous horse. The episode measures how thin the margin was in ordinary travel of the era — between a bruise and a funeral there was one roll of the body under a dock plank.
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