The Estus Mill Riot and a Summer of Fights
A flurry of violence in Montesano leads to court appearances, boundary disputes, and a neighborhood brawl.
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 matinee in Justice Bignold's court began Saturday evening, when Alvin Allen, O. Allen and W. Allen were held in $600 bonds to appear before the Superior court and show what they had to do with the Estus mill riot. In the meantime, J. S. Buck, a North river rancher, and Alf. Wade, who lives on an adjoining claim, got into a scrap over the boundary lines and played hide-and-seek among the bushes, the old man being armed with an ax and Wade with a club. Wade 'found' the old man on the arm with his club; Buck concluded he was no match for the nimble Wade, so he quit the game and came to town to get the service of a surgeon and a lawyer. Wade came in Monday to stand trial on the charge of assault and battery and was held in $300 bonds to appear before the Superior court, notwithstanding he had been fined by Justice Bennett of Artie for the same offense. The latest 'unpleasantness' was on Saturday evening, when Will Crumley and Levi Hilderbrant, two neighboring farmers living east of town, inhaled some of the fighting element which seems to be in the air, and they went at it hammer and tongs. After the fight was over, Crumley was second best man, with a bent face, two beautiful black eyes, and numerous scratches. Crumley invoked the strong arm of the law to punish Levi, but a jury in Justice Bignold's court decided that Levi was all right and turned him free.
“Two neighboring farmers living east of town, inhaled some of the fighting element which seems to be in the air, and they went at it hammer and tongs.”
Early Grays Harbor industry was often defined by its volatile labor and land relations, evidenced here by the Estus mill riot. Today, these rural boundary disputes and industrial conflicts feel like a distant echo of the town's frontier legal development.
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