Vigilante Violence on the Tacoma Waterfront
A man is tarred and feathered by a mob of 'beachcombers' in a brutal display of frontier lawlessness.
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 First Ward, along the beach below the Tacoma Sawmill, are a number of shanties where 'beachcombers' and depraved characters reside. These people, generally designated 'beach-combers,' are a rough lot of men, some living with Indian women. A few days ago Charles Starkweather came to live on the beach with a squaw. Last night at 9 o'clock a party of 'beach-combers' went to Starkweather's cabin, charged him with beating the squaw, tore the clothes from his person, tarred him and then ripped open the pillows in the cabin and feathered him. In this condition they drove the man stark naked about the streets of Old Tacoma, into a saloon, and knocked him down and beat him numerously. He claims that he begged protection of the policeman stationed there, but was not given it. The unfortunate man was taken to a cabin by someone, but three or four men later entered the cabin, drove him out, threw him over a bank and drove him into the water at the point of a pistol. These men threatened him with death if he remained, so his squaw took him to the island. This evening the unfortunate man was brought back to the hospital. Starkweather says he can identify two of the attacking party. Great indignation is expressed here, and the perpetrators of the outrage will be ferreted out and brought to justice.
This 1886 incident highlights the brutal, lawless nature of labor camps and transient settlements in the early days of Puget Sound industrialization. Such vigilante violence often targeted the most vulnerable, reflecting the era's lack of formal municipal oversight and the raw, often racist, social codes of 'beach' communities.
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