The Neighborhood Shotgun Stand-off
A property dispute in Colfax turns violent when a woman pulls a shotgun on her neighbor over a straying child.
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.
Mrs. Jane Leadbetter and her gun caused a breezy sensation this morning. A woman named Mary West lives next door and for several weeks there has existed a bad feeling between the twain. This morning about 10 o'clock Mrs. West's little child strayed into the Leadbetter domains and when Mrs. West started to go after it she was confronted by a shotgun in the hands of Mrs. Leadbetter, who told the trespassing lady to make an instant retreat or take the chances of being shot. Mr. West came on the scene at that minute and tried to procure the child, but the belligerent woman's rejoinder was to level it at him with a command to get off her premises in double-quick time. Mr. West took to his heels and came to town and swore out a warrant for Mrs. Leadbetter's arrest. Justice Fulton put the gun-wielder under bonds of $500 to keep the peace.
“She threatened to shoot the first member of the West family she should ever see on her lot again.”
This neighborhood feud highlights the volatility of property-boundary disputes in the growing towns of the Washington Territory. While the weaponry has changed, the underlying tension of neighbors policing 'domains' and the swift intervention of the courts remains a quintessential American civic struggle.
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