The Violent End of a Beachcomber Feud in Port Townsend
A long-standing quarrel between two ex-soldiers in Port Townsend culminates in a fatal shootout on the beach.
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.
Noah G. Edgell shot and fatally wounded Joseph Lavelle, near Judge Brigg's place, at 7 o'clock this evening. The affray is the termination of a family feud. Edgell and Lavelle have had frequent quarrels during the winter. Lavelle told the Post-Intelligencer correspondent tonight on his deathbed that on March 27, Edgell met him on the beach alone and fired five shots at him without effect. The two men did not meet again until this evening, when Edgell came out of Judge Brigg's house and met Lavelle. Some hot words passed between them. Lavelle said that Edgell called him a 'Frenchy.' The latter said he would not take that from any one. The two men drew their pistols and fired at about the same time. One bullet struck Lavelle in the right breast, penetrating his lung, and the other bullet clipped Edgell's hat above the right ear. Edgell fired a second shot, which lodged in Lavelle's left lung. No one was present or witnessed the shooting except Lavelle's 14-year-old boy. Edgell delivered himself up to the authorities. Lavelle, in his dying declaration, claims that a neighbor named Kuntz and Edgell put up a job on him for the purpose of killing him. Kuntz denied the accusation. Lavelle's proper name is Louis Lovety, and he served in the Union army in the civil war in a Vermont regiment.
“The two men drew their pistols and fired at about the same time. One bullet struck Lavelle in the right breast, penetrating his lung, and the other bullet clipped Edgell's hat above the right ear.”
This story of a fatal feud between two neighbors reflects the raw, often unpoliced nature of life in Washington's pioneer coastal towns in the 1890s. While Port Townsend has since transitioned from a bustling frontier port to a historic maritime destination, the vulnerability of marginalized individuals—referred to here as 'beachcombers'—remains a theme in discussions about housing and displacement along the waterfront.
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