The Sheriff’s Gavel: A King County Land Auction in the Shadow of the Gold Rush

BY VIRTUE OF AN EXECUTION issued out of the District Court of the Third Judicial District of Washington Territory, held at the city of Seattle, King County, dated on the 29th day of July, A.D., 1876, in the case wherein John Collins is plaintiff and William H. Gilliam is defendant, on a judgment therein rendered in said Court, on the second day of February, A.D., 1875, for the sum of eight hundred and twenty-four hundredths dollars, with interest thereon until paid, at the rate of ten per cent. per annum, together with the costs amounting to $18 and 75-100ths and increased costs, I have levied upon the following described property, to wit: William H. Gilliam, donation claim, and numbered forty, being part of section numbered twenty-three and twenty-four, in township numbered twenty-three north of range four east, containing 160 acres of land in King County, Washington Territory. Also, lots numbered six, seven, eight and nine of section numbered twenty-three, and the north half of the northeast quarter and the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section numbered twenty-six, in township twenty-three north of range four east, in King County aforesaid, containing in the whole 2331 acres of land. And now, by virtue of said execution, on Monday, the 4th day of September A.D. 1876, at the hour of 10 o’clock A.M., in front of the Court house door, in said city of Seattle, I will sell to the highest bidder therefor, at public auction, all the right, title, and interest of said defendant, William H. Gilliam, in and to the above described property, or so much thereof as will satisfy said execution, interest, costs, and accruing costs.

L. V. WYKOFF, Sheriff King County, W.T. Seattle, W.T., August 3d, 1876.