The Preacher, the Deed, and the Burning House
A small-town minister's affair with a married parishioner ends in arson, a whitewash trial, and an effigy swinging from an electric light pole in the heart of Oakesdale.
OAKESDALE, Wash., May 27.—Special: Never has the notorious Holgate scandal so torn up local church circles as at present. The cause of this is the conduct of Rev. P. D. Holgate, the United Brethren minister, whose fondness for the fair sex has caused his downfall and brought disgrace upon his church and community. There has been gossip about the preacher for months, but it came to a head when a female member of his congregation became so demonstrative in her attentions to the preacher as to cause open talk.
When this woman deeded Rev. Holgate a house and lots in Oakesdale without consideration, her husband was forced to believe her unfaithful, and a bill of separation was drawn up and signed by both, the husband retaining the children and the farms. The wife took up her residence in the house recently deeded to the preacher, but after a few days removed her household goods to the residence of Rev. Holgate, ostensibly to nurse Mrs. Holgate, who was sick. That night the house vacated by her was burned, and the evidences of incendiarism were so strong that public feeling ran high and talk of violence was so freely indulged in that the marshal, taking three assistants, repaired to the Holgate residence and stood guard until the angry crowd had dispersed.
A church trial followed, in which the reverend gentleman was covered with a coat of whitewash, and he continued in his post until the mutterings among his congregation became so loud that the woman left his house and went to Oregon. The pastor was then forced to resign his position and filed a lien upon the church for the unpaid portion of his salary.
When Mrs. Holgate recovered her health sufficiently to move she left her husband and took up her residence with a neighbor, taking her trunk and sewing machine. Holgate forced the return of these and declared the man who tried to remove them would "spit blood," and made many other threats. Public feeling reached such a pitch after the wife's story had been made public that open threats were made against the minister, and these culminated last night in the hanging in effigy of Rev. Holgate to an electric light pole in the heart of the city. The effigy was covered with numerous uncomplimentary placards. Large crowds gathered around the figure until the marshal removed it.
“The effigy was covered with numerous uncomplimentary placards. Large crowds gathered around the figure until the marshal removed it.”
A generation before national headlines made clergy misconduct a byword, this Whitman County town was already staging its own reckoning: rumor, a church tribunal, a quiet transfer of property, and finally a mob's verdict on a light pole. It's a reminder that the machinery of moral accountability — and the vigilante shortcut around it — has a long pedigree in small Washington towns, and that the people hurt most are rarely the ones the crowd gathers to judge.
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