Squak Valley Trial: Chinese Hop-Pickers Killed in 1885 Raid
A brutal night of terror in the hop fields as an armed mob targets immigrant laborers.
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.
In the ongoing trial of the Squak Valley murders, the prosecution examined several witnesses regarding the assault on the Chinese hop-pickers on the night of September 7th. The prosecution contends that a party of men, including the defendant Perry Bayne, organized an armed raid on the Wold Brothers’ orchard. Witnesses testified that the mob, armed with Winchester rifles and pistols, descended on the camp where twenty-seven Chinese laborers were sleeping. The assailants set fire to a tent and fired indiscriminately, killing three and wounding others.
One witness, Jim Graham, testified that Perry Bayne and Sam Robertson had recruited him and other Indians, telling them the objective was merely to 'drive the Chinese back to Seattle.' Graham described the scene as the mob surrounded the tents, noting, 'I heard Ferry Bayne say: Hold up the tent, and all shoot when we get ready.' Following the command, the party fired their guns at least three times each. The prosecution introduced into evidence several bullet-riddled items, including a tin bucket, a coffee pot, and tents found at the scene. Despite defense attempts to discredit the witnesses and the nature of their oaths, the court allowed the testimony to proceed as part of the case against the accused.
“I heard Ferry Bayne say: Hold up the tent, and all shoot when we get ready.”
This 1885 account describes the violent anti-Chinese sentiment that roiled the Pacific Northwest during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The 'Squak Valley' referenced is modern-day Issaquah, and the exploitation of immigrant labor for the region's agricultural success remains a recurring tension in Washington's history.
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