The Tolt Ditch Dispute
A local landowner writes to the editor to clarify his role in filling a ditch, contradicting previous reports.
Tolt, Feb. 11, 1895. To the Editor: I would like to state facts about the ditch and parties concerned. I saw a false report to your paper of January 27 concerning the ditch and I wish to state the facts of the case. Daniel O'Leary had nothing to do with the filling of the ditch, or nothing to do with the ditch whatever. I own the land under a lease from the said O'Leary and have lived on the land for the past three years and paid rent yearly. Those false reporters that informed you knew well that I filled the ditch, for they saw me doing it, and every one in the neighborhood knew that I filled it. HENRY SARGENT.
“Those false reporters that informed you knew well that I filled the ditch, for they saw me doing it.”
Land use and water rights disputes have been a constant in the Snoqualmie Valley since the 19th century. This letter captures the small-scale, personal nature of property conflicts that often defined rural life in the Washington Territory and early statehood era.
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