A Lodging House Dispute Turns Criminal
A domestic fallout at a Third Street boarding house leads to accusations of furniture theft and violent harassment.
Amos J. Albin, living at 406 Terrace Street, was committed to jail yesterday in default of $350 bail for trial before the superior court on charges of grand larceny and threatening to commit bodily injury upon the complaining witness, Louisa A. Richard. The woman alleges that Albin came to her room at the Silver State lodging house, on Third, between University and Union Streets, on Saturday before noon, while she was gone, and took the furniture, including a bedroom suite, mattress, pillows, and stove. She also says that on the same day he behaved in a violent manner toward her on a Yester Avenue streetcar. On the trial, the woman admitted that she had lived for a long time with the defendant as his wife, leaving him on January 2. The defense was that Albin was a part owner in the goods alleged to have been taken.
“The woman alleges that Albin came to her room... and took the furniture, including a bedroom suite, mattress, pillows, stove, etc.”
Domestic disputes over shared property in boarding houses were a common source of litigation in 1890s Seattle. The details here reflect the precarity of 'living as husband and wife' outside of legal marriage contracts in that era.
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