The Brewery Barricade: A Pioneer Land Grab

Thursday morning, a force of men appeared on the road immediately north of the Seattle Paddock Hospital and fenced it in. The curiosity of the public was aroused, and by one and twos a crowd gathered. When it had grown to sufficient proportions, the curiosity changed to indignation, and they demanded to know by what authority the fence was being built. John Bank, who was leading the work, stated that it was his property, and he was simply putting a safeguard around it. Councilman Hannah of the First Ward became a member of the crowd and walked up and down looking at the barriers, declaring that it was an outrage to build a fence there and was without any authority; that the road had been there before the young man who dared to fence it had been born. Mr. Bank answered, saying that Mr. Hannah had the same right to tear it down as he had for breaking the law in any other way, but that he (Bank) would advise him not to do it. Councilman Lailer was also in the crowd, and he too protested loudly against the fence. But all that was said in protest was punctuated by the regular blows of the carpenter’s hatchet driving home the nails. When the fence was complete and the way thoroughly barricaded, the workmen retired up the hill, leaving the two Councilmen, flanked by a crowd of indignant citizens, looking at them through the bars. Bank is a young man and a partner in a saloon uptown, and Hannah is old and gray-haired and retired from business, but he seems to have acted upon the young saloon keeper’s advice, for the fence is still standing today.