The Great Tacoma Hop Battle
When a New York firm tried to back out of a contract after a price crash, they found that Tacoma business owners weren't taking no for an answer.
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.
The firm of E. Meeker & Co. and L. F. Thompson have just enforced a hop contract made with the firm of Uhlman Bros. of New York. The New York firm had made a contract with the above parties for about 36,000 pounds of this year's crop of hops for 39 cents per pound, and now the market price having declined, the firm seeks to evade the contract. Mr. Uhlman, of the New York firm, came to Tacoma a few days ago and tried to effect a compromise. He offered Mr. Thompson $3,000 to release them from the contract, but this Mr. Thompson declined to do, and on Friday night the cash, amounting to $10,800, was paid over to the sellers, and the hops are to be shipped at once.
“The market price having declined, the firm seeks to evade the contract... [but] the cash, amounting to $10,800, was paid over to the sellers.”
Contract disputes over agricultural commodities were as cutthroat in 1883 as they are today. While Meeker is remembered today for the Meeker Mansion, this snippet shows his role as a shrewd negotiator in the booming hop industry that once defined the Puyallup Valley.
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