The Yale Football Legend Who Tamed a Frontier Town
When lawlessness gripped the construction camp of Skykomish, a former Yale athlete used his brute strength and leadership to face down a local gang leader.
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.
Skykomish, thirty miles east of here, 'the toughest town on the Great Northern,' barely escaped having a lynching Sunday night. The pay car passed over the road Saturday and money was plenty. More than the ordinary amount of 'rolling' was indulged in by the tough element, and when the section men complained that they had been held up for their month's earnings, popular indignation was aroused. A notorious tough known as the 'Big Kid' was thought to be the leader of the thugs, and about 200 railroad men decided to get rid of him. W. W. Heffeltinger, assistant paymaster, was elected spokesman, and they went to the 'Big Kid's' hang-out and waited upon him in a body. Heffeltinger told him he would be allowed until 9 o'clock the following morning to leave the town. This did not suit the committee, and they yelled: 'Hang him! hang him!' Heffeltinger, however, was master of the situation and urged his men to do nothing rash, and the limit of the desperado's probation was fixed at 9 o'clock Monday morning. Quiet was restored and at 9 o'clock Monday the 'Big Kid' was not to be found, and now everything is quiet along the Skykomish. W. W. Heffeltinger, the spokesman of the committee, is a graduate of Yale college and was the heavyweight of the Yale football team a few years ago. He stands over six feet high, and weighs over 200 pounds. He marshaled his forces with the skill of a general, and to his coolness and persuasiveness the 'Big Kid' undoubtedly owes his life. The railroad men speak highly of their leader's conduct, and they all swear by 'Heff.'
“The constable there is a barkeeper and the justice of the peace is a saloon habitue, and they are worse than no officers at all.”
The transition from rugged railroad camps to the organized municipalities of today mirrors the growth of the Pacific Northwest. While lynching mobs have been replaced by the justice system, the tension between vigilante impulses and official authority remains a part of the regional history.
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