The Section House Shootout
Fed up with a string of thefts, a railway foreman takes the law into his own hands and shoots a intruder on the tracks.
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.
Carley, Wash. May 15—A stranger, giving his name as J. W. Kelly, caught in the act of burglarizing the S. P. S. section house, was shot and wounded here today by Section Foreman Percy Gaunis. For some time the section men have been annoyed by people breaking into the section house and carrying off whatever they could find of value. May 9, hats, some clothing, a rifle and other articles were carried off and consequently the men have been keeping a close watch on men going up and down the tracks. This morning as the crew came up the track they met a man walking toward the station. The foreman of the crew dropped off the handcar, taking his rifle with him, to watch the man. When Gaunis arrived at the house he found that the man had forced an entrance through the back door. When the foreman called to the man to come out, he jumped through a window on the opposite side of the building and started to run across the sand toward the river. Gaunis called out several times for the man to stop but the challenge was unheeded and three shots fired into the air failed to halt him. Gaunis then fired at the fleeing man with the intention of wounding him in the leg, but the shot entered his body about the top of his hip. Gaunis immediately notified M. E. Carley and A. H. Poston who rendered temporary aid to the wounded man and communicated with the superintendent of the S. P. & S. It is not thought Kelly’s wound will prove serious.
“Gaunis then fired at the fleeing man with the intention of wounding him in the leg but the shot entered his body about the top of his hip.”
In 1914, remote railway section houses were vital infrastructure often left vulnerable to petty theft, sparking frontier-style justice. Today, the location of Carley remains a vanished spot along the Columbia, reminding us how quickly industrial outposts can disappear once the industry shifts.
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