Schweitzer Hermit Painting
It was on a summer morning in 1893, while riding her well-mannered little filly, Nelly, to work, that Ella Mae first encountered a strange individual, dressed in some sort of well-worn military uniform, standing trailside at strict attention, musket at his side, as she passed. This went on for a few days, until one morning, he instead stepped out onto the trail, and taking Nelly by the reigns, led the pony about a half a mile along the path, before letting go and disappearing back into the woods.
When she told her husband and son Earl about this strange occurrence, young Earl said that it sounded a lot like a “friendly old hermit named Schweitzer” who lived alone in a small cabin near where he and his friend Harry Nesbit liked to fish. This took the edge off of Ella Mae’s concern, but she took to running Nelly through that section of woods anyway.
Then, not long thereafter, the man showed up at the railroad station during Ella Mae’s shift. Speaking in a thick Swiss accent, he informed her that he had come to seek her advice regarding his intention to kill a local settler, and take the settler’s wife as his own. Ella Mae made eloquent argument intended to dissuade the man from this plan, and after he had left, sent a warning to the settler that he was the target of a murder plot.
The next morning, Schweitzer came back to the station to tell Ella Mae that he had decided to take her advice and not follow through on his plan, and that because Ella Mae was both younger and prettier than his other intended bride, it was his intention to carry her off instead.
Unarmed and alone at the little station, and not a soul within earshot, Ella Mae decided to put on a front of bravado.
Standing up, she began loudly berating the man. “Schweitzer, you know I have a husband of my own, and am a respectable woman, and you cannot talk to me as you are doing!” she exclaimed. “Let me tell you my husband and the railroad company will fix you if you carry me off.” He stood there silently for what seemed an eternity. Then, tipping his hat to her, he politely answered. “Well, for the present, we will drop the matter.”
From that day forward Ella Mae kept a six-gun alongside her Bible in the drawer next to the telegraph machine, and L.D. immediately contacted the nearest railway agent at the Spokane office who, accompanied by the County Sheriff and a doctor from Rathdrum, arrived the following day to look into the affair. Upon entering the recluse’s cabin, located near where Bronx Road now crosses Schweitzer Creek, they found the hides of numerous cats nailed to the walls, and a pot full of cats boiling on the stove for the man’s supper, thereby solving the mystery of the recent disappearances of numerous of the town’s pets. Schweitzer was taken into custody, remanded to the “county farm” for observation, and later committed to an “insane asylum” where, as Ella Mae put it, “He lived out the rest of his life a dangerous and raving lunatic.”And, to this day, Earl and Harry’s favorite fishing spot has been known as Schweitzer Creek, and the mountain above, Schweitzer Mountain.
Donor: Unknown
Adopted by: Paxton Kee
It was on a summer morning in 1893, while riding her well-mannered little filly, Nelly, to work, that Ella Mae first encountered a strange individual, dressed in some sort of well-worn military uniform, standing trailside at strict attention, musket at his side, as she passed. This went on for a few days, until one morning, he instead stepped out onto the trail, and taking Nelly by the reigns, led the pony about a half a mile along the path, before letting go and disappearing back into the woods.
When she told her husband and son Earl about this strange occurrence, young Earl said that it sounded a lot like a “friendly old hermit named Schweitzer” who lived alone in a small cabin near where he and his friend Harry Nesbit liked to fish. This took the edge off of Ella Mae’s concern, but she took to running Nelly through that section of woods anyway.
Then, not long thereafter, the man showed up at the railroad station during Ella Mae’s shift. Speaking in a thick Swiss accent, he informed her that he had come to seek her advice regarding his intention to kill a local settler, and take the settler’s wife as his own. Ella Mae made eloquent argument intended to dissuade the man from this plan, and after he had left, sent a warning to the settler that he was the target of a murder plot.
The next morning, Schweitzer came back to the station to tell Ella Mae that he had decided to take her advice and not follow through on his plan, and that because Ella Mae was both younger and prettier than his other intended bride, it was his intention to carry her off instead.
Unarmed and alone at the little station, and not a soul within earshot, Ella Mae decided to put on a front of bravado.
Standing up, she began loudly berating the man. “Schweitzer, you know I have a husband of my own, and am a respectable woman, and you cannot talk to me as you are doing!” she exclaimed. “Let me tell you my husband and the railroad company will fix you if you carry me off.” He stood there silently for what seemed an eternity. Then, tipping his hat to her, he politely answered. “Well, for the present, we will drop the matter.”
From that day forward Ella Mae kept a six-gun alongside her Bible in the drawer next to the telegraph machine, and L.D. immediately contacted the nearest railway agent at the Spokane office who, accompanied by the County Sheriff and a doctor from Rathdrum, arrived the following day to look into the affair. Upon entering the recluse’s cabin, located near where Bronx Road now crosses Schweitzer Creek, they found the hides of numerous cats nailed to the walls, and a pot full of cats boiling on the stove for the man’s supper, thereby solving the mystery of the recent disappearances of numerous of the town’s pets. Schweitzer was taken into custody, remanded to the “county farm” for observation, and later committed to an “insane asylum” where, as Ella Mae put it, “He lived out the rest of his life a dangerous and raving lunatic.”And, to this day, Earl and Harry’s favorite fishing spot has been known as Schweitzer Creek, and the mountain above, Schweitzer Mountain.
Donor: Unknown
Adopted by: Paxton Kee