The Maple Leaf Housekeeper Feud
A physical altercation between two men over a housekeeper leads to a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon.
August Fischer swore out a warrant before Justice Neagle yesterday charging John Bauer with assault with a deadly weapon at Maple Leaf on January 6. According to Fischer's story, Bauer hit him in the left eye with a stone that he claimed he had concealed in his pocket. He told the justice that the trouble was over Bauer's housekeeper, Fischer claiming that he, Fischer, had interfered with her. Fischer's head was done up in bandages and gave every evidence that he had been hit with something. A warrant was issued and placed in the hands of Constable Terry King to be served.
“Fischer's head was done up in bandages and gave every evidence that he had been hit with something.”
This domestic dispute from 1893 reflects the era's tendency to resolve interpersonal conflicts through the local courts of the Justice of the Peace. The mention of Maple Leaf—then an outlying area—highlights how disputes were handled in Seattle's developing neighborhoods before they were fully integrated into the urban police grid.
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