Street Duel Leaves One Dead at the Challenge Saloon
A quarrel between two 'sports' on Main Street ends in the death of Reuben Highbarger.
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.
On Tuesday night last, Main Street in our city was the scene of another shooting affray, which resulted in the death of a man named Reuben Highbarger, according to the verdict of a Coroner's jury, from a pistol shot fired from the hands of Christopher White. The parties named were both 'sports' and got into a quarrel about some matter in the Challenge Saloon, which they ended in the street, near the Bank Exchange. Three shots were fired—the first by Highbarger, and the other two by White, one of which took effect in Highbarger's breast and the other in his neck, killing him almost instantly. White had an examination before Judge Oliphant on the following day and was held to bail in the sum of $1,000 to appear at the next term of the District Court.
“The 'luxury' of shooting at and shooting men in Walla Walla, has become, so to speak, a merchantable affair.”
In 1864, Walla Walla's Main Street was a place where disputes were regularly settled with pistols rather than lawsuits. Today, the town has transitioned from the 'shooting gallery' reputation of the frontier era to a center for wine and history, though the legacy of the Old West remains etched into local lore.
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