Laborer Brutally Robbed on Great Northern Grade
As construction moves rapidly across the region, a railroad worker is assaulted and robbed near Snohomish.
As R. Weston, a laborer on the Great Northern railroad, was walking along the grade near Snohomish on Sunday evening, he was attacked and beaten into unconsciousness and robbed of cash and pay checks amounting to $170. Weston says that he was walking towards Snohomish, about three miles east of the city, when he was seized from behind by the nape of the neck by one man and struck in the face by another man. He was then thrown down and kicked and beaten brutally until he became insensible. He did not come to his senses for three hours, and then found that $170 in cash and two pay checks from Shepard, Henry & Co. for $30 and $15, respectively, had been stolen.
“He was then thrown down and kicked and beaten brutally until he became insensible.”
The rapid and dangerous expansion of the Great Northern Railroad created a mobile, transient labor force that often became the target of street crime. This violent episode highlights the high human cost and vulnerability of the men who literally built the infrastructure of modern Washington.
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