The Courthouse War
A fierce battle between a judge and county officials leads to a standoff, a jail sentence, and a wild threat to tear down the jailhouse to free the prisoner.
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.
An opportune attack of sickness saved County Auditor Ashmore from being sent to the county jail for contempt of court in refusing to obey the mandate of Judge Hunter to issue a warrant in payment of certain claims arising out of the courthouse muddle of last winter. Now the supreme court has interposed with a writ of prohibition, and Auditor Ashmore breathes easier. When the superior court wished to move to suitable quarters months ago, it issued an order for the sheriff to provide the same. The board of county commissioners retaliated, directing the auditor to issue no warrant for the expenses. The sheriff proceeded to lease another building for $230. In January, Judge Hunter cited the commissioners, auditor, and treasurer to appear. The court declared the claims to be charged upon the county, and the sheriff was ordered to present them for payment. Auditor Ashmore refused. The court issued a peremptory writ of mandamus, and upon Ashmore’s continued refusal, sentenced him for contempt to pay a fine of $100 and go to the county jail. A physician’s certificate of illness prevented immediate imprisonment, and in the meantime, the auditor’s attorney rushed to Olympia and obtained a writ of prohibition. The matter caused great excitement, and threats were freely made that if the auditor should be imprisoned, the jail would be torn down and the official liberated.
“Threats were freely made that if the auditor should be imprisoned, the jail would be torn down and the official liberated.”
This 1892 clash over administrative control and building maintenance mirrors the chronic tension in Washington state politics between judicial authority and local executive power. The threat to physically dismantle a jail to liberate an official highlights the raw, localized nature of civic power in the frontier era.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.