A Road Through the Barn: Drunk Commissioners and a Judge's Rebuke
A Snohomish County road crew moves to cut a highway through T. Larson's house and barn; testimony says two commissioners were too drunk to inspect the route.
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.
A road case of unusual interest occupied the attention of Judge Denny in the superior court the fore part of the week. Alexander Robertson and others had petitioned for a highland road from Arlington to Stanwood. The board of county commissioners granted the petition and a number of residents proceeded to construct the road. The survey passed through the house and barn of T. Larson, near Florence. The road supervisor and his men were tearing down Mr. Larson's fences when he remonstrated and appealed to the superior court. Some very interesting testimony was brought out on the witness stand. Mr. Larson and a number of other witnesses claimed that the whole matter was a job of Commissioner Moran and a number of interested parties. L. O. Snub testified that at the time the commissioners were viewing the roads in that section, Friars and Moran were so drunk that they were not taken over the road in question; that they were kept out in the woods and finally a wagon was procured and the commissioners hauled back to Arlington in a complete state of intoxication. Judge Denny censured the road supervisor in his action in trying to force a road through Mr. Larson's house. He granted the petition for a road from Arlington to Stanwood, with the exception of that portion which passed through Mr. Larson's property, and reserved his decision on that portion until he could view the premises.
“The commissioners were hauled back to Arlington in a complete state of intoxication.”
Local road-building has always been a place where public authority, private property and personal conduct collide. The drunken-inspection detail is period color, but the underlying question—who gets to decide where a road goes and whose land it cuts through—is still recognizable in Snohomish County growth fights.
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