The Tragedy on French's Slough
After enduring months of harassment and an earlier assault, a Snohomish farmer kills his neighbor in a roadside confrontation.
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.
Information of a fatal shooting at Snohomish reached the city last evening. David Montgomery shot O. E. Trask yesterday afternoon on the county road, about a mile from Snohomish, and at once surrendered himself to the sheriff. Montgomery is a farmer who lives on his place on French's slough, near town, and is known as a quiet, inoffensive citizen. Trask ran a logging camp on the Pilchuck, three miles from Snohomish, and had been engaged in numerous quarrels in the neighborhood, establishing a reputation as a difficult man. He was unmarried, and the trouble which led to the shooting grew out of his attentions to a young lady who lived near Montgomery’s home. Trask had heard that Montgomery warned the young lady’s father of Trask's bad character and attributed the family's coldness to this fact. About ten days ago, in Snohomish, Trask attacked Montgomery with a slung-shot, injuring his hand. Montgomery armed himself and informed Sheriff Tompkins that he intended to protect himself at any cost. Yesterday, Trask met Montgomery on the road, stopped him, and declared he intended to finish the job he began ten days before. Montgomery attempted to avoid him, but Trask blocked his path and made a motion as if to draw a weapon. Montgomery emptied his revolver at short range; two bullets struck Trask in the breast, two in the abdomen, and two in the arms. The wounded man died four hours later. Public sympathy is with Montgomery.
“Montgomery anticipated him and emptied his revolver at short range, firing six shots in rapid succession.”
This 1891 shooting highlights the tension between personal safety and the rule of law in frontier Washington, a theme that persists in modern debates over the limits of self-defense and the role of police in mediating neighbor disputes. The 'roadside' confrontation feels eerily familiar to modern headlines about escalating personal conflicts in semi-rural Pacific Northwest communities.
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