Tensions Mount After Garfield Shooting
A real estate feud ends in a critical shooting, leaving a town on the edge of vigilante justice.
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.
Colfax—J. E. Brown, who shot Thomas Turnbow, a rival real estate agent at Garfield, a week ago Sunday morning, and has been in jail since, was Wednesday formally arrested on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder and bonds fixed at $5000 for his appearance for preliminary hearing August 25. The bonds have not yet been furnished, although Brown's attorneys are hustling for it. Turnbow is still in the hospital at Spokane, entirely paralyzed, with little hopes for recovery. A telephone message from Spokane says his condition is unchanged since his arrival there Sunday and his condition is critical. All talk of lynching Brown has subsided, but should Turnbow die there will be grave danger.
“All talk of lynching Brown has subsided, but should Turnbow die there will be grave danger.”
This violent confrontation between business rivals in early Whitman County underscores how high-stakes professional disputes—often mediated today through civil litigation—carried mortal consequences in frontier-era Washington. The mention of potential lynchings serves as a grim reminder of the volatile nature of frontier justice during this period.
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