Mining Company Moves to Clear Housing of Striking Miners
The Oregon Improvement Company serves eviction notices to former employees at Franklin, citing a dispute over land ownership and past labor unrest.
The story, cleaned up
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The Oregon Improvement Company has served notice of ejectment on about twelve of the white miners formerly employed at Franklin, who have houses on land owned by the company, and some of these houses are now being torn down. Superintendent Corey gave the following account: 'A number of the white miners have houses on sections 17 and 10, leasing the ground from the company at a nominal rental. At the time when we brought the colored miners in two years ago, the Oregon Improvement Company did not own this land, but about six months ago obtained title to it. When we brought in the colored men we bought out a number of the white miners who owned houses on this land, but some of them backed out of the bargain and refused to give us possession. We then quit buying them out, and have now served ejectment notices on about twelve of them who have paid no rent for a year, and have not been working for the company. They are the irreconcilables among the strikers and some of them are now tearing down or burning their houses. The company is simply trying to get possession of its property.'
“They are the irreconcilables among the strikers and some of them are now tearing down or burning their houses.”
This dispute over land title and the displacement of workers highlights the historical intersection of industrial capital and housing control in Washington. It mirrors current regional tensions where corporate property interests and the displacement of labor continue to shape the geography of where people are permitted to live.
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