The Gloves Came Off in Aberdeen
When two men fought for the Chehalis County boxing championship, a packed house watched through the windows of the Coonskin Athletic Club.
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.
Tuesday evening at the rooms of the Coonskin Athletic Club occurred the first amateur glove contest. Chas. Welever of Aberdeen and Wm. Tresure of Stockton, Cal., contested for the championship of Chehalis county. Five ounce gloves were used. Geo. Murphy and Jerry D. Gagner were referees; Frank Pratsch and Frank Mitchell, seconds; A. E. Gagner and Ben Willey, time keepers. The rooms were packed and ladders procured so as to look in at the windows. There were seven hotly contested rounds, lasting thirty minutes. No blood was spilled nor eyes blackened, but after each round the contestants were pretty well winded, so fierce was the battle. In the third round Welever got in a heavy right-hander which landed Tresure clear over the rope, but Tresure sprang back into the ring and the round ended with a clinch. In the seventh Tresure was again sent over the rope. At the end of this round the referees declared the battle a draw.
“The rooms were packed and ladders procured so as to look in at the windows.”
Early boxing culture in boomtowns like Aberdeen was often an underground affair, relegated to athletic clubs or makeshift venues, reflecting the era's complex relationship with 'manly' violence. Today, combat sports are highly regulated, but the raw, participatory energy of towns pressing against windows to witness a local match remains a staple of small-town spectacle.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.