The Kent Burglary Manhunt
A hardware store robbery leads to a tense, armed pursuit through the thickets of the Green River valley.
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.
C. M. Warner's hardware store at Kent was entered by burglars on Tuesday night, with pistols, pocket knives, and tools being taken. On Wednesday night, a raid was made upon the store of M. M. Morrill and F. W. Shirrard, resulting in the loss of over $100 in goods. The thieves used tools stolen from Warner to force entry, linking the crimes. Yesterday morning, John Murray, while hunting horses near dense woods south of Kent, discovered two men resting beside full sacks. Local residents suspected the men were the culprits and mobilized a search party. Joseph Crow and A. M. Playford followed the trail and encountered the suspects. When the men refused to halt, Playford fired a warning shot, leading to the capture of one suspect, who identified himself as Albert Johnson. Johnson remains in the lockup, while a posse of thirty to forty men continues to scour the woods for the second robber, who is believed to be trapped by the high, cold waters of the river.
“They soon came in sight of their men, who, mistrusting their errand, struck deeper into the almost impenetrable thicket.”
Kent was a rural, hop-farming town in 1893 where a burglary was a major civic event requiring a neighborhood posse. Today, the area is a massive logistics and industrial hub, though the Green River remains a defining, sometimes dangerous, physical barrier in the valley.
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