The sheriff seizes Olympia's streetcars, mid-block, over a bond
A lawyer's objection leaves a Main Street horse car standing stock still at Sixth for hours while the company's backers scramble for a new bond.
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.
Attorney O. C. Lacey notified Sheriff Prince this morning that the bond given by the North Olympia Land Company yesterday was illegal, because the sheriff could not take a bond to satisfy an execution and at once take possession of horse cars No. 2 and No. 4 and proceed to sell the same by law. The sheriff, after examining the matter, at once notified Mr. Savage that his bond was illegal and returned the same to him, after which he proceeded to take charge again of the rolling stock of the Main street "system," stopping the No. 4 car on the corner of Sixth and Main street. The car was kept stock still for several hours.
Mr. Savage got warm under the collar and, after flying around in quite a rage, prepared an appeal to the supreme court and filed a bond with the clerk signed by the North Olympia Land Company, principals, and T. I. McKenny. Attorney Lacey still contends that this bond is also illegal, because a corporation cannot file a bond unless a meeting of the trustees is held and so determines.
The cars are at this writing in motion again, but Attorney Lacey is on the war path for the satisfaction of the judgment of the superior court.
“The car was kept stock still for several hours. Mr. Savage got warm under the collar and after flying around in quite a rage, prepared an appeal to the supreme court.”
Olympia's first street railway was barely running before it was tangled in execution, supersedeas bonds and corporate formalities — the sheriff literally holding a horse car hostage on the corner. Transit agencies and private operators still fight over who owns the rolling stock and who must pay when the money runs out.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.