The Night the Post Office Was Hunted: A Fugitive’s Flight Through Aberdeen
On a quiet Sunday morning in December 1890, Officer Pearson chased a suspected thief through alleys and lumber yards, firing his revolver twice as the man fled toward the Weatherwax yard.
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.
A Robbery Frustrated.
About one o'clock Sunday morning, as Officer Pearson was walking through the alley between G and H streets south of Heron, he saw a man standing in the rear of the postoffice near the shed. Wondering what could be the fellow's business in that locality at such an hour he hailed him and asked him what he was doing. The man did not reply, and the officer spoke to him again. At the second salutation the man jumped off the walk behind a building, thence darted into the alley and away at top speed.
The officer started after him, calling on him to halt. Not being obeyed the officer pulled his revolver and fired it just above his head, thinking to frighten him, but the fellow only ran the harder. By this time both pursuer and pursued were running up past the telephone office. Here the officer fired again but did not succeed in hitting his man and the latter darted into the Weatherwax lumber yard and got away.
When the fellow started he was seen to throw something away, and after searching for him awhile, Pearson returned to the scene and after some search a flat steel 'crowbar was found where it had fallen. The fellow's object was evidently to rob the postoffice, but timely discovery frustrated his designs.
It were well that our citizens be on the lookout for thieves. Our neighboring towns are infested with them, and they will pay Aberdeen their respects also. Lock you doors carefully, load your revolvers, and if these gentry give you a call, receive them at the muzzle of your weapons, and don't forget to take aim. The less of their society we have the better.
This 1890 account of a thwarted burglary attempt captures the raw, unpoliced reality of frontier life in Aberdeen. While modern policing is professionalized and digital, the fundamental tension between property crime and community vigilance remains a constant thread in local history, reminding us that 'locking doors' was once a literal matter of survival rather than just routine advice.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.