The Fifteen-Cent Shooting at Newcastle
A pay-day dice game in a company saloon ends in a near-fatal shooting, leading to a botched manhunt and a casual local acceptance of violence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
William Franklin, a miner, was shot at Newcastle on Sunday night during a drunken row in a saloon by Charles Harrison. He was shot twice, one bullet entering his left lung and the second breaking his left arm. Saturday was pay day at the Newcastle mines, and most of the workers spent Sunday in the company’s saloon drinking and shooting craps. Sunday night, a crowd of about thirty congregated, and several games were kept running. At one of the games, William Franklin and Henry Lyons were among the betters. After a certain throw of the dice, Lyons scooped in 15 cents which lay on the table; Franklin claimed the money and ordered Lyons to drop it. Lyons became angry and threatened to kill him. Franklin drew a revolver and fired, but missed. Several others drew their weapons, and after a brief scuffle, Harrison advanced and shot Franklin twice. The wounded man was conveyed to a cabin, but no effort was made by the crowd to detain Harrison, who simply picked up his effects and left. Sheriff Woolery, notified by the justice of the peace, attempted a pursuit by steamer to Renton, but the boat struck a submerged log and stalled, forcing the party to wander in the brush until morning. The prisoner, Harrison, later surrendered, remarking with unusual feeling as he was jailed, 'I laid over the foundation of this place before the walls were built. I didn't have it figured out that I'd be in here some day myself.'
“I laid over the foundation of this place before the walls were built. I didn't have it figured out that I'd be in here some day myself.”
This 1892 report from Newcastle—now a suburban area of Seattle—reveals a volatile frontier labor environment where company towns were centers of both intense industry and unchecked, violent social friction. The sheriff's bungled river pursuit and the casual resignation of the local witnesses offer a stark look at the law enforcement limitations of the era.
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