The Siege of Port Blakely
When mill workers organized for better conditions at the Port Blakely mill, the company responded by calling in the National Guard, turning a labor dispute into a military occupation.
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.
The strike at Port Blakely, which began when the mill's management dismissed employees for labor organizing, has escalated into a military standoff. On Monday, following a dispute over unionization and the dismissal of key workers, the striking laborers walked out. Captain Kenton, determined to keep the mill running, hired a replacement crew and utilized guards to secure the property. When tensions rose, Sheriff Comstock of Kitsap County sent a telegram to Governor Squire declaring that a riot was likely and requesting military intervention. By Tuesday, a detachment of the Washington National Guard arrived via transport steamer. The soldiers patrolled the wharves and mill grounds, where they were quartered in a local building while the strike continued. John Campbell, representing the mill company, denied that they were making war on the Knights of Labor, framing the conflict instead as a matter of individual business management. Despite the presence of the militia and the arrival of strike-breakers, the situation remained tense as the company served notices to striking workers to vacate their company-owned housing.
“As long as I remain at the head of the Port Blakely mill, it will be run by me, and I will exercise the right granted me under the Constitution to employ or discharge any man whom I please, without regard to any outside interference whatsoever.”
The Port Blakely strike of 1886 reflects the early, brutal phase of Washington’s labor history, where corporate power and state-sanctioned force frequently collided. Today’s housing and labor movements in Seattle similarly struggle against the precarity of employer-linked housing and the systemic suppression of worker advocacy, proving that the tension between industrial control and collective labor remains a central thread in the region’s identity.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.