Ingebright and Lars Wold were two brothers who owned a large
hop farm in the Squak Valley, about 15 miles east of
Seattle, in the 1880s. For several years they had been using local American Indian laborers to pick the hop crop, but in 1885 the market prices for hops were very low. After failing to negotiate lower wages with the Indians, in late August the Wold brothers contracted with the firm of Quong Chong & Company in Seattle to bring Chinese laborers to pick the hops for a reduced rate. On Saturday afternoon, September 5, 1885, a group of 37 Chinese laborers arrived at the Wold brothers' farm. They pitched their tents in the orchard at the farm. That same night a group of local Squak Valley residents, led by Samuel Robertson and DeWitt Rumsey, visited the Chinese and told them they should leave the valley. They were interrupted by one of the Wold brothers' workers, who persuaded the local men to go see the Wold brothers. The local men, along with
George W. Tibbetts, the local Justice of the Peace and prominent merchant, met with the Wold brothers and told them that the Chinese must leave, or else the same men would come back and force them to leave. The Wold brothers told the group to go away and let the Chinese do their work. The group then left and returned to their homes. On Monday, September 7, at about 4 o'clock, another group of about 30 Chinese laborers started to enter Squak Valley and were met at George W. Tibbetts' store by a group of white men and Indians. The crowd intimidated the arriving Chinese, who turned around and went back the way they came. died quickly, and another, identified as Yeng San, died the following morning. The remaining three wounded men—named Gong Heng, Ah Jow and Mun Gee—recovered, although Mun Gee was reported to have more permanent injuries. Under oath, Robertson admitted taking part in the shooting and named several others who were there with him. The jury found that the Chinese were killed "by gun and pistol wounds initiated by M. DeWitt Rumsey, Joseph Day, Perry Bayne, David Hughes, Samuel Robertson, Indian Curley, Indian Johnny and other persons to us unknown." The prosecutor then charged the same seven men, plus Tibbetts, with
inciting a riot. Another trial was held in late November, and all of the defendants were found guilty. They were fined $500 each. The defendants
appealed their conviction to the territorial
supreme court on the grounds that women had been wrongly included on the grand jury that had handed down the indictments. In January 1888, the court agreed with the defendants, saying that the law required all members of grand juries to be qualified voters, and women at that time
did not have the right to vote in
Washington Territory. All of the convictions were overturned. ==Disputed information==