Homestead Dispute Ends in Fatal Gunfight
A prominent Black Republican politician kills a friend and neighbor after a tense standoff over a land claim in Stevens County.
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.
Frank L. Wilson, a prominent colored Republican politician of Spokane, shot and killed Charles Hart, also colored, at the former's homestead in Kalispell Valley, Stevens County, about 6 o'clock Tuesday evening. Wilson and Hart, who have long been intimate friends, own adjoining homesteads. Wilson is in business in Spokane, and on going to his ranch Tuesday, he found Hart had jumped it. Wilson carried a repeating rifle, with which he had been hunting. When he arrived at his place and found Hart at the barn a quarrel arose, followed by a fight in which Hart wrenched the gun from Wilson's hands. He raised it to fire, when Wilson begged him not to shoot. Hart fired, however, the ball passing through Wilson's clothing and grazing the body. Hart threw in another cartridge, when Wilson jumped back, pulled a pistol and shot Hart through the heart, killing him instantly. Hart's wife witnessed the killing and testified to the above facts before the coroner's jury, which exonerated Wilson on the ground of self-defense.
“Hart wrenched the gun from Wilson's hands. He raised it to fire, when Wilson begged him not to shoot.”
Land disputes, particularly those involving homesteading, were common in the frontier era, often resulting in violence when legal title was contested. Today, such conflicts move through civil courts, though the intensity of property and boundary arguments remains a fixture of life in the growing Pacific Northwest.
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