A Christmas Eve Killing in the Woods
A railroad foreman is murdered in a Pe-Ell camp, sparking a failed attempt by a lynch mob to claim the shooter.
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.
CHEHALIS, Dec. 25. — In a drunken row in a railroad camp above Pe-Ell last night, William Kelly, a foreman, was shot and killed, and Dennis Collins, a laborer, was seriously wounded in the shoulder by Andy Gorden. The three men and another occupied a cabin together. A quarrel started over a team Gorden had been ordered to care for earlier in the day. Kelly applied an offensive epithet to Gorden, who pulled a revolver and shot him through the head, killing him instantly. He then fired more shots at the other two men, striking Collins in the shoulder. The third escaped, and Gorden then walked to town and gave himself up. An hour later, five railroad men entered town to lynch Gorden, but were driven back by the officers and citizens without bloodshed. When Gorden saw them he threw up his hands and said he was ready as soon as he could write a message to his mother. Collins says the murder was deliberate and cold-blooded. Kelly was about 40 years old and a great favorite with the men. He had been with Contractor Kelo many years.
“An hour later, five railroad men entered town to lynch Gorden, but were driven back by the officers and citizens without bloodshed.”
This violent incident on the frontier of 1892 captures the volatile environment of early Lewis County logging and railroad camps. Pe-Ell, once a bustling hub of timber industry, retains little of the frontier lawlessness that defined its early development, though its history remains anchored in the labor that built Washington.
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