The Sheriff’s Swift Justice at Commencement Bay
After a horse was stolen from Georgetown, the sheriff tracked the thieves to a camp near the Indian reservation and recovered the animal in less than 24 hours.
Sheriff Van de Vanter has added another notch to his laurels as an officer of the law. He was notified at 11:30 a.m. that a horse belonging to a man living at Georgetown had been stolen, and by 3:30 p.m. the following day, he had the two men who had stolen the horse in custody, having arrested them at a camp at the head of Commencement Bay. Last night, he arrived on the Flyer with the two men and the horse, which he had also recovered. The sheriff stated: 'As soon as I was notified of the theft, I commenced an investigation and found that the two men, Levi Wharton and Barney Hutlee, both tough characters living in a camp near the Indian reservation, had driven into Georgetown on Monday on a buckboard and had traded off the wagon for two matches and $1. I tracked the men to Tacoma and then out to Fernhill, where they traded the horse for another and received $1 to boot. I arrested them at Commencement Bay, and at 3 o'clock had recovered the horse. The men are believed to belong to a regular gang of horse thieves; about a dozen horses have been stolen in the past month in different portions of the Sound country.'
“I tracked the men to Tacoma and then out to Fernhill, where they traded the horse for another and received $1 to boot.”
Georgetown, once a distinct town, is now a neighborhood in South Seattle, and the 'Sound country' horse-theft rings of the 1890s have long since been replaced by modern concerns over vehicle theft. The sheriff's rapid pursuit highlights the era's reliance on personal investigation and the mobility of the 'Flyer' steamer, which served as a vital transit link between Seattle and Tacoma.
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