The Street-Side Brawl Over Union Labor
A bakery driver was fined after physically attacking a union member who was picketing his wagon in 1891 Seattle.
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.
Thomas Head was fined $25 and costs yesterday by Justice Neagle for assaulting John Wagner. Head is a non-union man and drives a bakery wagon for D. S. Holden & Co. Wagner, who is a union baker, followed Head about the day the assault was committed and tried, so it was claimed, to keep people from patronizing the wagon. Finally, Head grew angry and walloped Wagner all over the pavement. Although the state's attorney moved that the case be dismissed at the plaintiff's cost, Justice Neagle held that Head had no occasion to resort to blows and fined the defendant $25 and costs.
“Finally Head grew angry and walloped Wagner all over the pavement.”
This 1891 scuffle over a non-union worker captures the early tension of Seattle's labor movement. It mirrors modern debates over the gig economy, strike-breaking, and the intense visibility of labor disputes that still frequently spill onto Seattle’s sidewalks.
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