An Ambush in the White River Valley
A local store owner and his daughter narrowly escape a violent attack by three assailants.
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.
On the 15th instant, at 7 P.M., in his own store, Mr. Henry Hunter and his daughter, Mrs. Bulger, narrowly escaped being murdered by three Chinamen. Mr. Hunter and Mrs. Bulger were alone in the store at the time the men entered. They inquired for canned corn and beef. Mr. Hunter informed them he had none, but had plenty of fresh beef, as he had recently butchered, and asked Mrs. Bulger to take a lamp and show them the beef, which was hanging in a back apartment of the building. Mrs. Bulger led the way where the beef hung, two of the men following her and the other remaining in the store with Mr. Hunter. While so engaged, he heard Mrs. Bulger scream. Dropping the biscuits he was holding, he ran to rescue his daughter. The assailants boiled ahead of him. When Mr. Hunter got there, they were killing Mrs. Bulger. The lamp was on the floor, upset, but still burning, which the men tried to screen, preferring the darkness. They attacked Mr. Hunter, but he dashed them from him and ran through the darkness to his bedroom, where he kept his gun. After loading it, he stepped into the hall, when one man pulled a revolver on him, which missed fire. Mr. Hunter retaliated with the gun, which did not miss, hitting the assailant, and they all made their escape. Mrs. Bulger was fearfully cut about the head and neck. She was stabbed in six or seven places and almost bled to death, but is in a fair way of recovery at present.
“The lamp was on the floor, upset, but still burning, which the men tried to screen, preferring the darkness.”
This report from 1886 reflects the intense xenophobic violence that characterized the 'driving out' era in Washington. Attacks like this were used to justify the systematic exclusion of Chinese residents, a period of history that permanently reshaped the demographic landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
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