A Violent Dispute Over the White River Tobacco Harvest
A partnership turns sour when a farmer allegedly assaults his partner with a piece of lumber during the curing process.
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.
John Graham began a suit yesterday in the superior court against George Yank to have a partnership for the raising of a tobacco crop dissolved and an accounting of the business made. According to the complaint, the men entered into an agreement last February by which Yank was to furnish five acres of land from his farm on the White River, near Slaughter (now Auburn), as well as horses and a building for curing the crop. The plaintiff was to handle planting, cultivation, curing, and marketing, with profits divided equally. Graham claims Yank only provided two and a half acres but that he proceeded anyway, spending his summer and $275 in expenses on the project. After the harvest, the crop was placed in a pavilion controlled by Yank. Graham alleges that while he was arranging leaves for curing, Yank became enraged, assaulted him with a piece of scantling, and drove him away. Graham has been afraid to return to the property and has been forced to abandon the tobacco, valued at $700, to rot. The court has been asked to appoint a receiver to oversee the curing process and dissolve the partnership.
“Graham charges that as he was engaged in arranging the leaves for curing Yank became enraged at him, assaulted him with a piece of scantling and drove him away.”
This dispute over agricultural land near the White River highlights a time when the Kent and Auburn valleys were the primary breadbaskets for a rapidly growing Seattle. Today, the rural disputes of 1892 have been replaced by intense debates over industrial zoning and flood management in those same floodplains.
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