Seven Men Taken in a Roche Harbor Smuggling Raid
A country store, a captured sloop, and a federal night raid on San Juan Island.
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.
TACOMA, Oct. 19 — About the most extensive gathering in of alleged smugglers has been made at Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, and as a result seven men spent last night in the county jail in this city, having been brought from Roche Harbor by Deputy United States Marshal J. H. Boyce. The prisoners are Isaac Sandwith, Cyrus Stowe, Richard Knight, John Gross, Fred and Alexander Lightheart and George Lawson. They were captured on Saturday night by Deputy Boyce, Customs Inspectors C. B. Fox and George W. Dillon and officers of the revenue cutter Wolcott. They also captured the sloop Annie of Fairhaven, which is alleged to have played a very important part in the smuggling. The ringleader of the gang is said to be Ike Sandwith, who keeps a country store at Roche Harbor. At his place the arrests were made, after carefully laid plans.
“The ringleader of the gang is said to be Ike Sandwith, who keeps a country store at Roche Harbor.”
Roche Harbor was a company town and border-adjacent port in 1891, and smuggling was a serious federal matter. Today the same harbor is a resort and marina, but the case echoes how remote Washington waterways have long been used to move goods around customs and taxes.
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