The Great Seattle Homestead Fraud
A whistleblower exposes how workers were swindled out of their hard-earned money by a predatory land development scheme.
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.
Truth crushed to earth will rise again. Reference has been made to my letter entitled No. I. It has been said that it was not explicit. It is my purpose to make it clear to all. There are many workingmen all over this Sound who have paid me, for the Company, their hard-earned money for lots in the Central Seattle Homestead. In the sale of those lots, I represented them as instructed by the Company; finding that my friends as well as myself, have been imposed on, it is a duty that I owe to my fellow men—if I wrong them intentionally or otherwise, to apologize. All I have to say is that I am sorry. Had the Company drawn on but 480 lots, solid from the bay, east, it would have satisfied the contract between you and them; but when they drew on more land, they invalidated the contract and became liable to refund the money received, with damages, and my advice to you is to send in your bonds and receipts at once to some responsible party and demand payment thereon, which I feel that you will be paid in full. Now, in conclusion, I would give you laboring men a word of advice. Before you enter into any more Homesteads, or any other schemes, called enterprises, placed before you, that you enquire closely into their merits, for you are the parties who pay the expenses of those who do not work; theirs and yours are liable to keep you poor. You will hear from me again when occasion requires it. Yours, respectfully, J. M. Rice.
“Before you enter into any more Homesteads... enquire closely into their merits, for you are the parties who pay the expenses of those who do not work; theirs and yours are liable to keep you poor.”
This 1876 letter warns of land speculators selling non-existent or over-promised plots to working-class residents—a practice that echoes today's anxieties regarding housing affordability, speculative investment, and the displacement of workers in a rapidly booming Seattle.
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