The Olympia Scandal: A Town’s Moral Reckoning

Several years ago, R.P. Shoecraft, having separated from his wife in Rochester, New York, came to Olympia and engaged in the real estate business. He became quite popular, serving as a deputy sheriff and running for county assessor. In the meantime, he married a most estimable lady. His wife eventually traveled to Rochester to see his relatives, where she learned the truth about her husband's life in her absence. Shortly after she left Olympia, Shoecraft became enamored of a woman who went by the name of Mrs. Birdie Maxwell. They met frequently on the streets and eventually, Shoecraft took the woman to live in his own home.

Mrs. Shoecraft wrote to her husband upbraiding him for his faithlessness, but Shoecraft coolly turned the letter over to the Maxwell woman to answer. Her reply was so indecent that it became the basis for a complaint filed by the wife's brother-in-law. Shoecraft and Maxwell were charged with adultery. At trial, both denied the charges, but the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Shoecraft was convicted, and Mrs. Maxwell entered a plea of guilty to simple adultery. The court suspended her sentence on the condition that she leave Olympia before January 10, 1886, never to return. A motion for a new trial was later filed, leaving the community to debate the moral standing of its local figures.