The Deadly Rivalry at the Bargetown Lake
Two farmers, blinded by their competition for the hand of a local woman, met at daybreak for a fight that ended in blood and arrest.
Tacoma, April 27.—Information reaches here of a probable fatal duel, which was fought in the country by two young farmers, John Augusta and Abe Taylor, living on the Bargetown Lake. They were rivals for the hand of Miss Jane Quattook. They quarreled and friends arranged a meeting, which took place Wednesday morning at daybreak. Pistols were the features. Miss Jane's suitors fired. Augusta, it is thought, will die from a wound in the groin. Taylor is slightly wounded in the left arm. Taylor was arrested and sought fears for trial.
“They were rivals for the hand of Miss Jane Quattook. They quarreled and friends arranged a meeting, which took place Wednesday morning at daybreak.”
While dueling today has vanished, the intensity of romantic competition remains a staple of human drama. The incident underscores a time when 'frontier justice' and personal disputes were frequently settled with violence, a harsh contrast to the mediated conflicts we expect in the modern Pacific Northwest.
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