The Great Chicken Crackdown of Tacoma
A local crime spree left Tacoma poultry-less until an arrest at a YMCA service broke the case.
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.
For months past the chicken houses of Tacoma have been depopulated to an alarming extent. Day after day some unfortunate would report no fryers last night. The fact had come to be so well known that the sound of the regal rooster's crow was almost extinguished in the city, and eggs were a foreign article. The police force have been using their utmost endeavors to run down and catch the thieves, and are at last successful. On evidence that they believed to be conclusive, Marshal Fulmar and his deputies have arrested all parties of different names and different charges. Walter, William Woodward and Tom Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Johnston were arrested at their house on Eighteenth street Saturday night. In the house they found a large quantity of chicken feathers. Mr. and Mrs. Walker were arrested at Lakeview, where they went a short time ago. It is supposed they have been working the country since going to Lakeview. William Woodward was arrested yesterday in the T. M. C. A. hall at the afternoon service. Tom Davis was arrested at Old Town today. He was one of the cooks in the employ of the Tacoma Mill Company. From evidence developed it seems that these various parties would steal the chickens and take them to the man Johnston, and he would dispose of them. Mrs. Johnston has, since being arrested, confessed and given the whole thing away.
“The fact had come to be so well known that the sound of the regal rooster's crow was almost extinguished in the city.”
Small-scale thefts of food or property often dominated local crime reporting in the late 19th century, reflecting the city’s transition from a frontier town to a more regulated municipal center. The arrest of a chicken thief at a YMCA church service provides a vivid window into the social life of 1880s Tacoma.
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