A Deadly Boundary Dispute at 'Hickory Hollow'
A long-standing neighborhood conflict over a fence and water rights erupts into a double homicide in the woods north of Seattle.
Two families named Brewer and Bush, who live upon adjoining premises at a place called Hickory Hollow, a few miles north of Seattle on the Snohomish line, have for some time been quarreling concerning a line of fence, water, and other common property. William Brewer had been drinking yesterday, and in the evening, in passing a neighbor's house, saw Mrs. Bush and her two sons, Thomas and Charles, talking at the gate. He drew a knife and stabbed Charles Bush in the back. Mrs. Bush and the other son interfered, and Brewer, grasping the old lady by the arm, struck her several times in the throat and cut her terribly in the neck, from which she soon bled to death. By this time, Bush and a man named Beaver appeared and attacked Brewer with clubs and stones, beating him until he was fatally injured. Brewer is a giant in strength and made a desperate fight, striking and dashing his assailants, but inflicting no serious wounds. One of his hands was almost cut off, and there are two long gashes on his head, and his face and neck are horribly mutilated. Charles Bush, whom Brewer attacked, has since died.
“Two families... have for some time been quarreling concerning a line of fence, water, and other common property.”
This 1888 account of a violent dispute over property lines and water rights serves as a grim ancestor to the modern, bureaucratic, and often litigation-heavy neighbor disputes that still define Seattle real estate. While the tools of conflict have shifted from knives and clubs to property law and zoning board meetings, the intensity of territorial battles over land remains a permanent feature of the region's growth.
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