The Bugle-Call Defense of a 'Jumped' Lot
When a town committee arrived to evict a couple from a disputed lot in Port Angeles, the wife met them with a bugle and two Winchester rifles.
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.
Port Angeles, April 11. This city was thrown into a temporary state of excitement today by the action of a committee appointed by the Board of Trade for the purpose of removing one M. A. Soper, one of the Michigan soldiers, from a lot he had occupied—a lot which it appears he jumped and which in fact belonged to Robert Forsythe, of Portland, Oregon. James S. Coolican had been instrumental in inducing Mr. Forsythe to settle upon the lot. Mr. Forsythe remained in Portland, and Mr. Soper moved in. Friends of Mr. Forsythe asked him to give up possession, but he refused. Last night, the Board of Trade appointed a committee to visit Mr. Soper and demand possession. When the committee arrived at the house this morning, Mrs. Soper opened the door, blew a blast on a bugle, and stepped out with two Winchester rifles. She declared she was ready to fight in defense of her home. One rifle was handed to her husband, and in a moment the lot-jumpers were reinforced with a number of others, all armed. The committee, who came for argument, not to fight, retreated. The Sopers remain in possession, and the matter will likely go to court.
“Mrs. Soper opened the door, blew a blast on a bugle, and stepped out with two Winchester rifles. She then said she was ready to fight in defense of her home.”
Land disputes and 'lot jumping' were common in the boom-and-bust era of Washington's development, when ownership titles were often thin or contested. Today’s struggles over land use and encampments echo these early, frontier-style property conflicts, where physical presence often stood in for legal title.
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