Colonel Turner's Stand: A Property Owner Blocks the Electric Railway
Ben Turner obtains a restraining order to halt the Olympia Light Power Company from grading through his donation claim, vowing no road shall pass.
Colonel Ben Turner was on top this afternoon and the builders of the electric railway are at a standstill so far as passage over the Wilson donation claim is concerned. Colonel Ben applied to Judge Robinson for a restraining order, restraining the Olympia Light Power company, and I. Libermann, the grading contractor, from proceeding further with the work. Yesterday, before Mr. Turner was out of bed, the graders tore down his fence and graded through the property. Turner now vows that no road shall go through at all.
“Turner now vows that no road shall go through at all.”
Then as now, infrastructure projects collided with private property rights. Turner's fight against the electric railway echoes modern disputes over eminent domain and development, where the needs of the many clash with the claims of the few.
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