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Gunfire at the University of Washington

Tensions boil over into an armed confrontation between students and faculty, leaving a student wounded.

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.

Seattle, May 16.—A number of students of the State University were disciplined last night, and when followed by the faculty who proposed to capture and discipline them, one student, Paine, was pursued by Professors Moore and Pike. Finding he was about to be caught, Paine turned and displayed a revolver, whereupon Prof. Pike drew his pistol and fired, the shot taking effect in Paine's thigh. The wound is not serious, but there is a good deal of excitement. Bad feeling between the faculty and students is of long standing, the latter having been unruly. No arrests have been made.

“Finding he was about to be caught, Paine turned and displayed a revolver, whereupon Prof. Pike drew his pistol and fired.”

— Printed in Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882
Then · 1882144 years apartNow · 2026

Long before its modern incarnation as a massive research institution, the University of Washington was the site of volatile confrontations between authority and student unrest. This 1883 incident captures a period where disciplinary disputes were settled not in administrative offices, but with drawn revolvers on campus grounds.

The original page

Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882-05-17. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, MAY 17, 1882, Page 1
Rights
Public domain
Place
47.65543, -122.30017 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗