1907 bank robbery rattled Ephrata

Photo from ‘It Happened in Pioneer Ephrata’ by Janet Jenkins Nelson The Bank of Ephrata building later housed the Ephrata Journal, which became the Grant County Journal when Grant County was formed in 1909.

by Rachal Pinkerton Staff Writer
| October 3, 2019 11:18 PM

EPHRATA, DOUGLAS COUNTY, Wash. — A loud explosion from the Bank of Ephrata roused two women from their beds around midnight on Saturday, April 6, 1907.

“At about 12 midnight, Mary McGrath, my mother and my wife were aroused by a loud explosion that came from across the street,” said I.N. McGrath, a longtime Ephrata resident, in a July 8, 1954 story in the Grant County Journal. “The two women were alone in the house just across the street from the bank.”

The two women saw men with candles moving around the bank. Suddenly, the men ran out of the bank. They threw themselves on the ground and another explosion sounded from the bank. Realizing what they were seeing, Mary McGrath ran to the Ephrata Hotel where she woke proprietor James Pierce. As it happened, the deputy sheriff of Douglas County was spending the night in Ephrata.

“He went into the adjoining building, Erickson’s Saloon, and got the bartender, Ed Olds, and a 30-30 rifle, but he had no ammunition,” McGrath said. “So they came back to my place and aroused the clerk, who was sleeping in a room in my store, then on the corner of Division and A. He gave them some shells. Then the deputy sheriff and Olds stepped around to the corner of McGrath’s store and began shooting diagonally into the bank building in an attempt to frighten off the robbers.”

Two of the robbers had been stationed as lookouts and returned fire. The two McGrath women watched the shoot out from an upstairs window and estimated that 100 shots were fired.

“In the meantime, the men were setting off dynamite shots in the safe of the bank,” McGrath said. “But the officers kept pouring 30-30 bullets into the building. Soon it became so hot for the men inside that they ran out the back door and fled with the two companions stationed outside as lookouts.”

Knowing they were outnumbered, the deputy sheriff and Olds decided to wait until daylight to give chase to the thieves.

McGrath, who had spent the night in Quincy, arrived home on the train at 6 a.m. By that time, townspeople were starting to gather around the now quiet bank. The door to the bank’s safe had been blown off, but the strong box inside had not relinquished it treasures.

“The inside of the bank was completely wretched,” McGrath said.

Local cowboys formed a posse and tracked the thieves to the area near Willow Lake. They found “the four men lying down in the brush.” The posse brought the thieves back to Ephrata.

“Everyone wanted to look at them,” McGrath said. “They took them to a restaurant and gave them food. They were held prisoners at the McGrath store until about 4 p.m. when they were put aboard the train and taken to Wenatchee and from there, to Waterville, the county seat of Douglas County, of which this county was a part in those days.”

The four men turned out to be two ex-convicts and two drifters. Their names were George Hendricks, John Muff, Lewis Spaulding and John Mille.

The Quincy Quill reported on April 12, 1907, almost a week after the incident, that “two of the men were well dressed and only about 25 years of age, while the other two were of the ruffian type.”

They also reported that the thieves were one charge away from blowing up the vault.

“Seven charges of nitro-glycerin were exploded against the bank vaults,” said the Quincy Quill. “Just when another charge would have placed the funds of the bank at their disposal, they gave up and under the cover of darkness, fled into the country. As it was, they secured $80, part of which they lost on their way out of town.”

“They were tried and pled guilty and were given prison terms,” McGrath said. “Even in those days, the best laid plans were thwarted by the law – the law and a woman.”

Reporter’s note: The Bank of Ephrata building later housed the Ephrata Journal, which became the Grant County Journal. The building is now on display at the Grant County Historical Museum.

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at rpinkerton@columbiabasinherald.com.