Mill Workers Resist Bank Seizure

John J. Carney, formerly of Elma, arrived in town and reported that an effort was made to have Gov. McGraw place Aberdeen under martial law and call out the militia. The trouble stemmed from an effort to seize a safe containing between $30,000 and $40,000 at the A.J. West & Co. mill. This mill, having a capacity of 80,000 feet of lumber a day, had been shut down for months. One hundred men had been thrown out of employment and were grumbling under enforced idleness. Arrangements had just been made to reopen the mill, when Samuel Benn and Dr. W.P. Book, owners of the Aberdeen bank, levied an execution on the property, effectively stopping the reopening. This enraged the men. When Deputy Pettyjohn arrived from Cosmopolis to levy the execution, he tore out a side of the office to remove the safe, which he placed under guard in a bank building. A sawyer led a party of infuriated employees into the street, declaring he could 'lick any blankety-blank son of a blank who dared stop the mill.' Fearing a riot, creditors unsuccessfully petitioned for troops.