The Main Street Bloodshed of 1862
A deadly riot between rowdy soldiers and Seattle citizens exposes the volatility of the town's early frontier days.
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.
In the troublous times of the fall of 1862, a detachment of California soldiers was stationed at the lower end of Main Street. On a memorable day, the soldiers were noisy, vulgar, and threatening. Marshal George Porter attempted to maintain order, but when he finally struck the ringleader of the group over the head, violence exploded. Over 60 shots were exchanged between soldiers and citizens. Marshal Porter was wounded in five places, and one citizen was killed outright, while another died shortly afterwards from his wounds. Seven persons in total were wounded. One soldier, known as Cherokee Bob, was killed. The next day, the soldiers marched to the residence of Jim Buckley and surrounded the house with bayonets, demanding to find the man who had shot their comrade. The man had already fled to Florence, where he was eventually shot by outraged citizens.
“It takes less time to tell the story, than it did for the bullets to fly.”
This violent episode on Main Street serves as a stark reminder of Seattle’s history as a raw, dangerous frontier outpost long before it became a tech hub. The tension between the local population and transient, heavily armed state/federal forces remains a recurring, albeit evolved, theme in civic conflict.
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