Seattle Sheriff's Auction Over an 1878 Debt
Legal notices from 1878 reveal a stark trail of property foreclosures, sheriff's auctions, and financial upheaval in the early days of King County.
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.
By virtue of an execution issued out of the District Court of the Third Judicial District of Washington Territory, holding terms at Seattle, in King county, on the 21st day of March, 1878, in the case wherein Dexter Morton and Arthur A. Denny are plaintiffs, and Thomas J. Jamison and Mrs. Jamison, his wife, Wm. Baumann, James Scott, and Andrew Moore are defendants, commanding me to take into execution the personal property of the said defendants, and if sufficient personal property cannot be found, then the real property of said defendants to satisfy a judgment for the sum of eight hundred and ninety-four dollars and sixty cents in gold coin, with interest from February 9th, 1878. Notice is hereby given that on Monday, March 25th, 1878, at the hour of 11 A.M., at the court house door in the city of Seattle, I will sell at public auction the right, title, interest, and claim of said defendants to the above-described property, or as much thereof as will satisfy said judgment.
“I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, gold coin, the above described land and premises.”
In 1878, the threat of the courthouse-door auction loomed over those who couldn't keep up with debts in gold coin. Today, while the currency and the courts have evolved, the anxiety of losing a home to mounting financial pressure remains an enduring and painful feature of Seattle's housing landscape.
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