The Ghost of the Coal Wars
A murder trial in Franklin uncovers the bitter reality of 'dead lines' and armed guards during a violent labor dispute.
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.
The second day of the trial of Park Robinson for the shooting of Edward Williams was occupied with testimony for the prosecution. The state’s evidence aimed to prove the dying declaration of Edward Williams: that Robinson killed him, and that Williams and Morris were both unarmed. Witness V. C. Jones testified he lived next to Williams and was with him near Franklin on the day of the shooting. He stated that 'dead lines' had been established around the mining property on May 17, the day African American miners were brought in, and that these lines were monitored by armed guards. When asked if the miners were armed, Jones admitted, 'Yes, sir; most everybody.' Despite the atmosphere of tension and the bitter feelings regarding the new laborers, Jones and other witnesses insisted that Williams and Morris were unarmed when they were shot down near Robinson's house. The defense sought to challenge the narrative by demanding the state produce Deputy Sheriff Ben Stretch, who supposedly found a gun under the body of Morris, but the prosecution resisted, noting Robinson was on trial specifically for the shooting of Williams.
“The dead lines were marked by barbed wire fences around all the mine openings except one at the river. The dead lines were established about May 17, on the day that the negro miners were brought in.”
This 1892 trial captures the volatile intersection of racial tension and labor conflict in Washington's coal country. Today, the 'dead lines' described in the testimony serve as a stark reminder of the extreme measures corporations once used to protect their interests during labor unrest, a precursor to the intense, though different, struggles over housing and space that define modern Seattle.
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