Page 65 - Family History

Family Stories

hitch in the matter. The office furniture and records did not at once take wings
and fly to the new location and the officers did not seem unduly hurried in

making the change. The machinery for carrying into effect the mandate of the
voters did not seem to be working.

Other circumstances combined to cast a rather sinister shadow over the
enterprise. The people interested in Port Crescent, incensed at their defeat, were
reported as declaring the county property would be moved only over their dead

bodies, in which attitude they were reported as having the sympathy of the
Dungeness people. Some hawk-eyed observer reported that he had seen a scow
load of men being taken from Port Crescent to Dungeness, probably for the
purpose of forcibly resisting any change until the supposed legal time for such

change had elapsed. The county seat at Port Angeles, so far, existed only on
paper and seemed likely to remain so. Tales of bloody county seat wars
disturbed the public mind. The situation was critical and full of menace.

A council of war of the Port Angeles element was held to devise ways and means
of remedying this unfortunate condition and although there prevailed
considerable palpitation of the heart, it was decided to bring the county records

and property to Port Angeles peaceably, if possible, but by violence if necessary.

The sheriff, Samuel G. Morse, a resident of Port Angeles, was prevailed upon to
act and he commissioned Mr. Frank P. Fisher, the present Deputy Collector of

Customs and then a regular Deputy Sheriff, and myself, a special Deputy, to
organize an expedition to transfer the county seat. The expedition comprised
three farm wagons with teams manned by a suitable force, an array of armed
mounted men as an escort and Mr. Fisher and myself as advance scouts to
considerably precede the main body and reconnoiter the situation. A desperate
struggle was prepared for.

In the gathering dusk of a November evening, Mr. Fisher and myself mounted
our horses and struck out for the scene of expected hostilities. Mr. Fisher was
equipped, as I recall now, with a revolver about a foot and a half long, of which
he was reputed to be a deadly handler, and I was supplied with campaign

material not necessary here to further specify. We had no confidence that our

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