The Sheriff’s Gavel: A King County Farm Vanishes at Auction
In October 1876, Duncan Dewar lost 160 acres of prime land in Seattle to satisfy a $300 debt. The legal machinery of the young territory was grinding away, turning homes and fields into line items.
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 OF SALE 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 plaintiffs 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 me 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. 1/2) of the south-east quarter (S.E. 1/4) and the north-west quarter (N.W. 1/4) of the southeast quarter (S.E. 1/4) of section numbered twenty-eight (28) and the north-west quarter (N.W. 1/4) of the north-east quarter (N.E. 1/4) of section numbered thirty-three (33) in township numbered twenty-five (25), north, of range numbered [5] east, 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 of sale, 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 accruing costs.
L. V. WYCKOFF, Sheriff of King County, W. T. Seattle, Oct. 5th, A.D., 1876.
This legal notice reveals the precarious nature of land ownership in early Seattle. While modern foreclosures often involve complex financial instruments, this 1876 auction shows that a relatively small debt ($300 is roughly $9,000 today) could result in the loss of significant real estate—160 acres—in the heart of what would become a major metropolis. It highlights how quickly property rights could be stripped away in the territory's formative years.
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