A Defaulting Treasurer’s Debt Finally Comes Due—for a Governor and His Bondsmen
A Seattle judge orders E. P. Ferry and other sureties to pay King County $29,143.60 plus years of interest for George D. Hill’s vanished public funds.
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 last of the suits against the bondsmen of George D. Hill, defaulting treasurer of King County, has been settled, and Judge Lichtenberg of Seattle on Saturday declared that the plaintiff, the county of King, is entitled to judgment in the sum of $29,143.60, with interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum from the 7th of March, 1887, in manner and form as follows, to wit: A judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against Eben Smith, David Kellogg and E. P. Ferry, executors of the last will and testament of George D. Hill, deceased, for $29,143.60, with interest from the 7th day of March, 1887, together with its costs and disbursements, and that they, the said executors, pay the said judgment in the due course of the administration of said estate; and a judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against John Leary, Joseph F. McNaught, George W. Harris, E. P. Ferry, Sutcliffe Baxter and G. C. Phinney for $29,143.60, with interest from March 7, 1887, together with its costs and disbursements, and in default of the payment thereof execution issue against said John Leary, Joseph F. McNaught, George W. Harris, E. P. Ferry, Sutcliffe Baxter and G. C. Phinney.
“The county of King is entitled to judgment in the sum of $29,143.60, with interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum from the 7th of March, 1887.”
Public money, personal sureties and a former governor on the hook: the 1891 judgment reads like a reminder that official accountability often arrives years late and through the courts. King County’s pursuit of George D. Hill’s bondsmen shows how local government debts could shadow prominent men for decades.
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