A Shingle War on the Frontier
A landowner's wife in Whatcom faces down armed men after a dispute over wood theft.
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.
P.I. Lynch began carrying shingle bolts from Mr. Livermore’s grain field last Thursday and refused to desist when Mrs. Livermore requested him not to take them until her husband came home. The woman then drew a revolver and forced him from the premises. He soon returned with his brother, R.E. Lynch, armed with revolvers and a double-barreled shotgun, and began swinging their guns above their heads and making loud threats. Some neighbors prevailed on Mrs. Livermore not to interfere, so the rowdies had the field to themselves. R.E. Lynch is the same man who tried to ‘clean out’ a saloon in Seattle last December, alleging he had lost $40 and a bill of lading for four cars of shingles.
“The woman then drew a revolver and forced him from the premises.”
Conflicts over land, resources, and the right to defend one's property with force remain a potent, if volatile, thread in the history of the Pacific Northwest. This incident, while small-scale, captures the era's frontier justice and the precarious reality of life for rural settlers before the establishment of modern, reliable policing.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.