Two Preachers, One Real-Estate Boom, and a Referee’s Biblical Burn
In 1892 Seattle, ministers sold Ravenna Park lots from the pulpit—then sued each other over the commissions.
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.
A lawsuit between two preachers over a real-estate trade had been pending for some time, and yesterday the referee filed his report. The plaintiff was William W. Beck, who, besides being a preacher, described himself as a real-estate dealer, miner, land owner, buyer and seller. Mr. Beck owned large tracts of land near Ravenna Park, and among others whom he employed to sell lots was the Rev. J. R. Kirkpatrick, pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Lebanon and Brownsville, Oregon. After a good deal of property had been sold, Beck and Kirkpatrick disagreed over the amount of commissions Kirkpatrick was to receive, and Beck brought two suits against him.
The questions in dispute were consolidated and referred to Attorney Boyd J. Tallman as referee. Mr. Tallman filed his report yesterday, finding that Mr. Beck was entitled to judgment against Mr. Kirkpatrick for $1,069.02.
In his findings, Tallman wrote that Kirkpatrick had been engaged in the quiet and peaceful occupation of expounding the Scriptures in Oregon, while Beck was engaged in reclaiming lost souls around Ravenna Park. Had the two reverend gentlemen continued to work in the Lord's vineyard and been content with laying up treasures in heaven, the referee said, he would not have been called upon to make findings. These litigants, he wrote, were only human and had the same natural desires, passions and ambitions as laymen. When the very wind around Seattle seemed to be singing, 'Oh, ho for the wild wooly West! / Ye tender, come forth and invest; / Come fly up the flume / In the real estate boom / Among the financially blest,' they looked around and saw men they considered their inferiors robed in purple and fine linen while their own Christian bodies were scantily clad.
The referee noted that Beck, while visiting Kirkpatrick in Oregon, had preached for him and then announced from the pulpit that Kirkpatrick would be pleased to sell lots around the Ravenna Park springs on easy terms. He observed that this was likely the first time the sacred desk had been used to boom real estate. Kirkpatrick claimed and was paid 25 percent on some sales and 20 percent on others which later fell through; Beck sought and by the referee's decision will recover the overpaid commissions.
““Oh, ho for the wild wooly West! / Ye tender, come forth and invest; / Come fly up the flume / In the real estate boom / Among the financially blest.””
Seattle’s real-estate frenzy has always attracted unlikely salespeople. In 1892, ministers were pitching Ravenna Park lots from the pulpit; today’s housing market still blurs moral authority and property speculation. The referee’s satire reads like a warning about boom-time ethics.
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