A Hatchet Charge, a Mayor's Household and a Chinese Worker in Court
In 1891 Olympia, a Chinese man known as Jim was arraigned for an alleged hatchet attack on an Olympia News clerk, with the mayor's wife among the first bondsmen.
Some months ago Mayor Horr's Chinese employee Jim was arrested for attempted assault with a hatchet on a clerk named Gunterman, employed at the Olympia News Company. He was arrested and held in $100 bail for appearance at the October term of the superior court. Gunterman was subpoenaed on Friday and came to Olympia on Saturday. The information was filed and Byron Millett was permitted to assist the prosecution.
An order was made discharging the first bondsmen, Mrs. Horr and G. G. Scammell. The Chinese man was arraigned and given until tomorrow to plead. Bail was fixed at $500, with J. C. Horr and O. M. Kellogg as sureties.
“The Chinese man was arraigned and given until tomorrow to plead. Bail was fixed at $500, with J. C. Horr and O. M. Kellogg as sureties.”
The item names Jim only by race and employer, a reminder of how Chinese residents were written about in 1890s Washington amid widespread anti-Chinese hostility. It also records a real court case—an alleged assault, a victim, and bail set in Olympia's superior court—facts easy to lose beneath the era's language.
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