The Sheriff’s Gavel: Seattle Land Auctioned to Pay a Debt
In October 1876, King County Sheriff L.V. Wyckoff prepared to sell 160 acres of land in front of the courthouse to satisfy a judgment against Duncan Dewar, illustrating the harsh realities of property law in early Seattle.
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.
Sheriff's Sale.
BY VIRTUE OF AN ORDER issued out of the District Court for the 3rd Judicial District of Washington Territory, holding terms at the city of Seattle, in King County, on the 31st day of September, A. D. 1876, in the case wherein Franklin Matthias and Erasmus M. Smithers, executors of the estate of Charles O. Terry, deceased, are complainants and Duncan Dewar is defendant on a judgment and decree therein rendered in said Court on the 4th day of September, A. D. 1876, and to me directed, commanding the to make sale of the property mentioned and described in said decree, to satisfy said judgment in, and for the sum of three hundred dollars ($300) U.S. gold coin, with interest on the same at the rate of one and one-half per cent. per month from the 25th day of May, 1876, until paid; and the further sum of fourteen dollars ($14) currency, with costs taxed at seventy-two dollars ($72) and increased costs.
I have levied upon the property described in said decree, to wit: The south half (S. ½) of the south-east quarter (S.E. ¼) and the northwest quarter (N.W. ¼) of the south-east quarter (S.E. ¼) of section numbered twenty-eight (28) and the north-west quarter (N.W. ¼) of the north-east quarter (N.E. ¼) of section numbered thirty-three (33) in township numbered twenty-six (26), north of range numbered [5] in, containing one hundred and sixty (160) acres of land; all in King County, Territory of Washington.
And now, by virtue of said decree and order to me directed, on Monday, the 6th day of November, A. D. 1876, at the hour of 10 o'clock A.M., in front of the Courthouse door, in said city of Seattle, I will sell to the highest bidder therefore, at public auction, all the right, title and interest of said defendant, Duncan Dewar in and to the above described property, or so much thereof as will satisfy said judgment and decree, costs, interest and ensuing costs.
L. V. WYCKOFF, Sheriff of King County, W.T. Seattle, Oct. 31, A.D. 1876.
This legal notice from 1876 highlights how quickly land ownership could be lost in early Seattle due to debt and litigation. While the specific parties are forgotten, the mechanism of sheriff's sales remains a potent tool in modern housing crises, where foreclosures and evictions continue to displace residents when they cannot meet financial obligations.
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