Hop Picker Kills Intruder in Midnight Stand-off
A teenage hop picker at a South Prairie ranch shoots and kills an unidentified man during a confrontation at a barn.
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.
Wiley Combest, aged 17, of St. Paul, Or., a hop picker, last night shot and killed an unknown tramp who attempted to enter a barn where Combest was sleeping, on Frank Bisson's ranch at South Prairie. Combest did the shooting, he says, in self-defense. He gave himself up and was brought to Tacoma this evening and placed in the county jail, charged with murder. Combest stated he was sleeping in the barn on Frank Bisson's ranch and was instructed not to let anyone in. About midnight, three men tried to enter. Combest fired a warning shot, but one man grappled with him. During the struggle, Combest fired three shots from his .38-caliber revolver. He later ran for help and alerted a doctor. The coroner's jury found that Combest killed the man in self-defense. The victim, who carried only a pack of cards and tobacco, will be buried in the potter's field.
“Combest thinks he is a gambler, because his fingers were soft and long, like a woman's.”
This 1892 story reflects the precarious life of itinerant farm workers, a demographic that remains vital and vulnerable in Washington's agriculture today. While the specific incident was a rural frontier tragedy, the tension between land owners, security, and transient laborers continues to resonate in modern discussions about agricultural housing and labor rights.
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