Vigilante Threat Forces Ocosta Resident Out of Town
A 'White Cap' warning left on a door successfully intimidated a local man into leaving town within 24 hours.
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 following notice was found upon the door of a notoriously disreputable dive in Ocosta last Tuesday morning. It was taken from the door by the person to whom it is addressed and handed by him to the town marshal. 'Charley' at first declared that he would remain in town, but afterwards decided that a coat of tar and feathers might not be pleasant and he wisely made himself scarce by taking the train out of town Wednesday morning. Now if the filthy inmates of the aforesaid dive could be driven out also, the moral atmosphere of the city would be decidedly improved: 'Ocosta, Wash., Oct. 10, 1892. Mr. Charles Huston: Dear Sir: the people of Ocosta is dead on to you And they have cum to Geather and talked It over desided that you Leave this town at wonce, Mr. Huston, Dear. We, the peaple of Ocosta will Give you 24 Ours two leave this town And If you don't you will hafto take whot follows. Yours truly, We, the peaple of Ocosta.'
“The people of Ocosta is dead on to you And they have cum to Geather and talked It over desided that you Leave this town at wonce.”
This reflects the volatile nature of frontier 'justice' in 1890s Washington, where local vigilante committees—often styling themselves as enforcers of morality—bypassed legal processes to target perceived social pariahs. While the methods of 'Whitecapping' have faded, the rhetoric of community-enforced expulsion continues to reappear in modern debates over 'undesirables' and neighborhood safety.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.