The People’s Ticket: Olympia’s 1891 Caucus Revolt

“The People’s Ticket” was the name given to that proposed at the First Ward caucus last night. Murphy and Horr were not in it. It was only in Murphy’s instance that surprise was occasioned, and it is certain that some of his First Ward henchmen have gone back on him. The mayor received a hint broad enough to tell him he ought to keep out of politics and remain in the feed business. John Miller Murphy called the meeting to order, and George G. Mills was chosen chairman. The meeting opened with the naming, by Robert Whitham, of Harry B. McElroy for council, and was immediately followed by S. C. Percival who named John Miller Murphy. Percival stayed close to his man throughout the evening. The vote on the two names resulted in McElroy 57, Murphy 41, and L. Bettman and M. Harris each one. The result was greeted with applause. Murphy’s treatment, it is said, was attributed to the action of the saloon men who threw him overboard after the famous first meeting of the present council, when there was a unanimous vote to close all saloons. As the people entered the hall last evening there was shoved into their hands a printed slip bearing the names of the following as delegates to the nominating convention: H. B. McElroy, P. H. Carlyon, Horr, A. H. Chambers, George G. Mills, S. G. Ward, W. L. Bilger, S. C. Woodruff, C. R. Carmil, G. W. Hambright, R. M. Toziee, Dr. Armstrong, E. T. Young. The citizens quickly saw it was a job of the Percival-Murphy faction and scratching was promiscuous, even before the balloting began. Mr. Murphy moved to elect the thirteen delegates by ballot and Robert Whitham moved that they be chosen singly. The chair ruled the latter motion out of order. O. A. Maskrey moved to amend Mr. Murphy’s motion by striking out “thirteen” and inserting “one.” The motion prevailed. It was during the balloting that Mayor Horr was so severely scored. As each man’s name was presented for delegate the ayes were received, but when the nays were called nobody answered until it came to Mayor Horr’s name. Then there were but few ayes as compared with the simultaneous burst of nays. “Horr is defeated,” announced the chairman, and then a volley of applause filled the room. The mayor turned as white as though he had fallen into a barrel of flour by mistake, but said nothing. The delegates were chosen by acclamation as follows: George F. Allen, S. C. Woodruff, Mitch. Harris, Frank Williamson, A. Farquhar, George G. Mills, A. H. Chambers, T. Young, W. L. Bilger, H. Sabin, P. H. Carlyon, Thomas Prather, E. McReynolds, Dr. G. S. Armstrong. On W. L. Bilger’s motion, the caucus expressed a choice by ballot for a candidate for mayor, with the following result: R. G. O’Brien, 50; T. C. Van Epps, 24; Robert Marr, 9; John Miller Murphy, 5; E. W. Andrews, 4; S. O. Woodruff, 3; A. H. Chambers, 3; Francis Hoffman, 3; Jack Jackins, 3; A. A. Phillips, 2; Captain J. J. Gilbert, 2; and Mark Reed, J. F. Gowey, W. L. Bilger, O. C. White, T. N. Ford, H. B. McElroy, Thomas Henderson Boyd, J. C. Horr, Sam Peters, 1 each.

SECOND WARD. In the Second Ward the meeting was held at the old school house. Over 100 citizens were present. John F. Gowey was elected chairman and M. A. Root secretary. A ballot for a candidate for the council was ordered, resulting as follows: Mark E. Reed, 40; E. S. Horton, 9; T. J. McBratney, 5; Mr. Springer, 2; Mr. Bettman, 2; and Messrs. Lord, O’Connor, T. E. Reed, Adams and Cavanaugh, one each. Boss Sickles did a good deal of electioneering for E. S. Horton, but Reed’s followers were too strong for him. As soon as the councilmanic nomination was over Boss Sickels, A. J. Gillis and others circulated a printed ticket with the names of nine delegates for the convention on Thursday night thereon, as follows: John F. Gowey, A. A. Phillips, P. Hiltz, Walter Crosby, O. C. White, A. J. Gillis, G. D. Shannon, Wm. McMicken, G. L. Sickles. When the vote was taken for delegates and announced, the above were found to be elected, much to the disgust of many who supposed there was to be no “put up job” at a citizens’ meeting. Chairman Gowey disclaimed having any previous knowledge of the printed ticket. “There was no use of us coming here. We might as well have stayed at home. They had it all fixed,” said Jacob L. Brown. The vote was as follows: John F. Gowey, 62; Wm. McMicken, 60; A. A. Phillips, 59; O. C. White, 55; Walter Crosby, 42; A. J. Gillis, 40; G. D. Shannon, 40; Phillip Hiltz, 17; G. L. Sickels, 27; M. A. Root, 17; C. F. Leavenworth, 17; T. J. McBratney, 15; J. M. Lammon, 15; T. M. Reed, 14; T. H. Cavanaugh, 14; Charles D. Garfield, 12; C. J. Lord, 11; W. F. Keady, 11; M. O’Connor, 10; P. D. Moore, 8; C. M. Barton, 7; R. G. O’Brien, 7; J. M. Swan, 6; T. B. Riley, 6; Arch. Adams, 6; V. A. Milroy, 4; W. J. Milney, 4; O. Kleber, 2; Phil Skillman, 4; M. Lemon, 4; George Forbes, 4; George Foster, 4; J. R. Mitchell, 3; A. P. Fitch, 3. About twenty others received one vote each. “Boss Sickels and Gillis’ idea in getting out a printed ticket is to get into Thursday’s convention and work for the nomination of Sam Percival as councilman at large,” said a well known citizen. “Gillis is Sickels’ candidate for city engineer,” said another. “He recommended the sewer plans which the city council bought for $1,500 and which are not worth $150. Percival is the councilman who engineered the purchase of those plans.” An informal ballot was taken as an expression of choice for councilman-at-large, which was very scattering. Harry B. McElroy received the highest number of votes, 12; S. M. Percival received 3. No choice was expressed for mayor.

THIRD WARD. Pursuant to a written application of five citizens of the Third Ward, a meeting of the electors of said ward of the city of Olympia is called to meet this (Tuesday) evening at the old school house, Third Ward, at 7 o’clock p.m., to choose nine delegates to represent the Third Ward in the convention called to nominate city officers; also to consider any other business that may properly come before the meeting. B. W. DAVIS, Chairman Citizens’ Convention.

SECOND WARD PROTEST. Several papers were circulated today in the Second Ward for signatures as follows: “We, the undersigned, residents and voters in the Second Ward, believing a great injustice was done at the mass-meeting of Monday evening, wherein a few persons having banded themselves together, with premeditated plans and printed tickets obtained control of the meeting and used it for their own selfish ends, thereby trifling with our liberties, we, therefore, appealing to the rights of the people, call a mass meeting to be held at central schoolhouse, corner Washington and Union streets at 9:30 o’clock sharp on Wednesday evening, December 2nd, 1891, for the object of repealing the action of Monday evening’s meeting and to renominate a councilman and elect new delegates, and transact other business that may come before the meeting.” Among the hundred names secured are those of W. E. Mitchell, O. W. Borden, B. F. Arnold, W. A. Lang, P. Dolan, J. M. Swan, E. S. Horton, R. S. Weston, R. B. Turner, R. F. Sones, J. N. Barry, W. Neylon, C. W. Dofflemeyer, W. Schroden, H. D. Westerman, J. C. West, G. S. Prince, W. Rice, Wm. Campbell, H. M. Warner, C. H. Swyringer, John H. Ogden, Jas. Radcliffe, R. Wilson, M. Scully, O. Lindstrum, E. J. Calhoun, Thos. Conolly, H. Whitney, E. Bonney, George Milton Savage, F. N. Mitchell, George D. Forbes, J. Mitchell, Wm. Lousmer, Frank Thompson, Chas. A. Hartsuck, T. P. Riley, Frank Lee, W. Bedford, F. G. Blake, F. M. Canady, W. H. Roberts, John P. Tweed, Olaf Frisch.