The Great Moonlight Water Pipe Heist
The Tacoma Light and Water Company sues the city after the Mayor and Board of Public Works seized their pipes under the cover of darkness.
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.
The Tacoma Light and Water Company came into court today and began suit against the city for $13,364 for the water pipe which Mayor Huson and the board of public works seized by moonlight over a year ago. The water company wants the pipe returned or the value of it. The seizure created a sensation at the time, and the president of the water company, Theodore Hosmer, swore a great oath and said the company would have the pipe. It was claimed by the city authorities referred to, but not by the city council, that the water company bamboozled the city on its report of the amount of supplies, pipe and other material on hand, and the mayor and the board of public works ostensibly made the seizure to even up matters on that score.
“The seizure created a sensation at the time, and the president of the water company, Theodore Hosmer, swore a great oath and said the company would have the pipe.”
Municipal power struggles over utility control were common during the infrastructure building boom of the 1890s. This incident highlights the raw, often confrontational nature of early public-private disputes over essential resources like water, which remain a point of civic contention to this day.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.