A Widow, Two Children, and a Town That Passed the Hat
When Mrs. H. P. Fox arrived in Spokane Falls to find her husband dead of an accidental gunshot, strangers raised money for his burial and her passage home to South Carolina.
The people of Spokane Falls are always prompt to answer to the will of charity. If a worthy person is known to be in distress there is always manifested a generous disposition to help that party out of trouble. When Mrs. H. P. Fox arrived in this city to find her husband dead from an accidental gunshot wound, it became known that she was left destitute with two young children, a stranger in a strange land. Mr. Mulloy was induced to circulate a paper soliciting funds to pay the burial expenses, and the young man was so successful as to secure upward of $100. A second paper was issued to raise money to pay the unfortunate woman's passage to her home in South Carolina, which was liberally responded to. No charges were made for medical treatment, and other services were given gratuitously. It is a ray of sunshine in her misfortune to Mrs. Fox to know that she met with good Samaritans, and she will take up her cross of sorrow and leave Spokane Falls with a kindly remembrance of its people.
“It is a ray of sunshine in her misfortune to Mrs. Fox to know that she met with good Samaritans.”
The story is an early version of the crowdfunding appeal: a family stranded by sudden death, medical bills waived, and neighbors passing a subscription paper. Then as now, the gap between a private tragedy and public generosity is where a town's character gets tested.
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