Fatal Stabbing at the Pioneer Hotel
A tavern dispute in Sultan turns deadly as a rancher kills a hotel proprietor following an election day argument.
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.
Sultan City, Nov. 9. Last evening about 6:30 o'clock, Dick Regan, a rancher, fatally stabbed Ed Guthrie, one of the proprietors of the Pioneer hotel. Being election day the saloons were closed, and Regan and a companion named George Hines desired to get a drink. They attempted to enter the Pioneer bar, but were refused admittance. They then looked through the window, and Guthrie went outside and in a few minutes staggered in at the door and fell. His partner went to his assistance, and discovered that he had been stabbed in the abdomen. He died half an hour later, without regaining consciousness. Regan was captured a few moments later by Deputy Sheriff Conway in the Great Northern saloon. Both he and Hines were under the influence of liquor. Regan's story is that when Guthrie came outside, Guthrie followed Hines and then struck at Regan. Regan claims he was whittling a stick with a pocket knife and made a pass at him, but did not know if he had cut him. The knife has not been found, though the nature of the wound suggests it was a dirk-knife.
“Regan appears unconcerned and claims that the deed was done in self-defense.”
Election day incidents were a common feature of local reporting in the 1890s, often centered around the volatile intersection of politics and the saloon trade. Sultan, a small mining and timber town, was frequently the site of rough-and-tumble disputes that mirrored the broader lawlessness of the developing frontier.
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