A Barn Burns at Midnight and Two Neighbors Are Arrested
W. H. Knapp's barn goes up in flames three miles east of Newport, killing a valuable cow. A kerosene-soaked rag under the doorstep points the deputy sheriff toward neighborhood gossip — and two young men.
Some time Saturday night between midnight and morning the barn of W. H. Knapp, on the homestead about three miles east of Newport, was burned to the ground. A valuable cow was consumed in the fire. The family was not aroused by the fire, and all the contents of the barn were destroyed, making a loss in the neighborhood of $300.
The next morning Mr. Knapp discovered some dry moss with evidences of having had kerosene on it, which was under the door step to their home. Other suspicious circumstances that he discovered caused him to make a trip to the county attorney's office at Sandpoint, with the result that Deputy Sheriff Hutchinson was detailed on the case.
Monday afternoon the officer, after an inspection of the premises and investigation about town, arrested Dell Heisner and Gale LeFever, two young men residing in the neighborhood, and took them to Sandpoint Tuesday morning. Neighborhood gossip and troubles are said to have had something to do with the affair.
“Neighborhood gossip and troubles are said to have had something to do with the affair.”
A $300 barn and a cow were a homesteader's whole working capital in 1910, so arson was economic ruin. The case turned on a kerosene-soaked rag and 'neighborhood gossip' — the kind of circumstantial rural prosecution that still raises questions about how small-town feuds end up in court.
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