MRS. E. B.HYDE'S
MOTHER PASSES
Mrs. T. Molinelli, 85, Whose Funeral Is Today, Came to Spokane in 1884.
ACTIVE IN CITY'S GROWTH
Hydes Were Prominent in Banking and Building Owning and Public Life.
Private funeral services for Mrs. Terecina Molinelli, 85, one of Spokane's earliest residents, will be held today from the Smith funeral home. Mrs. Molinelli died Wednesday at her home in the Metropole apartments, where she lived with her daughter, Mrs. E. B. Hyde. Although Mrs. Molinelli first came to Spokane in 1884, until a year ago she and her daughter made their home for 25 years in Berkeley, Cal.
Mrs. Molinelli was born in Italy and named after a town there, but at the age of 5 years came to the United States and spent her early girlhood in Denver, where she was married. Her husband acquired a comfortable fortune in business and then went blind from cataracts. After this catastrophe they moved to Spokane, settling here in 1884.
Hydes Prominent in 80's.
At that time the Hydes were prominent in the business and social life of the city, and Mrs. Molinelli's daughter, in 1888, married E. B. Hyde, who with his brother, Roland, had been active in the building of the city since it was started by James Glover. Another brother, the late Sam Hyde, was one of the town's leading lawyers and was afterward elected to congress and in his declining years was justice of the peace.
The Hydes were particularly forward-looking and after the town was razed by the memorable fire of August 1, 1889, E. B. Hyde built the Hyde building and other properties, Roland built the Fernwell building and a brother-in-law built the Blalock block, named for himself.
Suffered in Panic of 93'
The town boomed for three or four years, and E. B. Hyde formed the Citizen's National bank, with himself president. With the panic of 1893, the citizens bank failed. Mr. Hyde immediately mortgaged the Hyde building and raised all other cash he could and reopened his bank, only to have continued runs close it again, leaving him almost penniless.
Mrs. Molinelli in the lean years following kept a few paying guests in the Browne's addition region and among them were B. J. Cavanaugh, head of the money order department of the Spokane post office and Fred Barker of The Spokesman- Review mechanical department.
Mr. Barker believed that Mrs. Molinelli had passed away years ago, until the death notice came to his linotype machine in The Spokesman-Review composing room Wednesday night.
Although the Hydes and Molinellis were among the city's most prosperous residents before the panic , that disaster took away most of their resources, but Mrs. Hyden and Mrs. Molinelli managed to retain the Leland hotel, a four story brick building near the Pedicord hotel, but which the last few years, because of low rentals and high taxes, has not been a great asset. But despite their reverses, Mrs. Molinelli and her daughter, Mrs. Hyde, imbued with the spirit of the pioneers, have carried on courageously throughout the years.