A Union Send-off for the Ranch-Bound
Everett linemen gather at the Labor Temple to toast two of their own before they trade climbing poles for farm life.
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.
The linemen gave an elegant banquet in the Labor Temple last Saturday evening to their members and members of other crafts. The affair was in the nature of a farewell to Brothers Markham and Roberts, who leave with their families this week for Eastern Washington to take up farming as an avocation. Previous to the feed, several impromptu boxing bouts were pulled off in the hall below that were thoroughly enjoyed. The banquet table was set in the big hall upstairs and when those present gathered around it they found it groaning under the weight of a multitude of good things. Bro. Gibbs was head chef and from the able manner in which he handled the culinary end of the affair, one would never have guessed that his business was climbing poles and stringing wires. The boys showed keen appreciation of the quality of the viands set before them and fell to with a vigor that would have stricken terror to the heart of a mercenary boarding house keeper. At the conclusion of the banquet short speeches were in order and Toastmaster Olinger called on Brothers Peterson, Michel, Butler, and Marsh. Each one voiced the regret that the two brothers were to leave the city and the movement of which they have so long been a part. Bros. Markham and Roberts assured the boys that they proposed to carry with them the same union principles they had advocated and fought for as members of organized labor. They spoke with regret of the necessity of separating from the many friends they had found in Everett and extended a cordial invitation to everybody to visit the M. & R. ranch where they would always find the latch string down.
“The boys showed keen appreciation of the quality of the viands set before them and fell to with a vigor that would have stricken terror to the heart of a mercenary boarding house keeper.”
In 1911, union members felt a profound sense of camaraderie and shared identity through the Labor Temple; today, as industrial trades change and the nature of work becomes increasingly solitary or remote, these physical spaces of solidarity are harder to find but remain just as vital to civic life.
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