[From the Seattle Times Mar. 8, 1953. Part of celebrating the centennial of Washington becoming a territory. And also part of my series on dangerous librarians]:

A pair of century-old globes and some yellowed volumes of classical literature and voyages of discovery, exhibited this month at the Washington State Library in Olympia as a feature of the Territorial Centennial, had for their first custodian a man who figured in two sensational gun battles, the last of which terminated in his death.

Though Bion (or Benjamin) Freeman Kendall evidently was not a pistol-packing librarian on his arrival in Washington Territory, less than a decade later he went about the streets of Olympia in fear of his life, with a revolver in his belt.

Gov. Isaac I. Stevens may have influenced Kendall to seek the post of librarian. Before leaving for the West Stevens invested $5,000 appropriated by Congress in books with which to found a territorial library.

The organic act required that the books be kept "at the seat of government for the use of the governor, Legislative Assembly, judges of the Supreme Court, secretary, marshal and attorney of said territory and such other persons and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by law."

Nothing is known of the manner in which the book selections were made. Some time in March or April, 1853, the governor placed orders with D. Appleton & Co. and other dealers for books, which were to be shipped around Cape Horn to Olympia.

Most of the volumes had arrived when Stevens made his first speech November 28, when he explained his purchase of the Territorial Library, as provided by the organic law. He said then that the books had arrived in excellent order and "had been placed in charge of a gentleman until the Legislature might make some suitable provision."

The governor said care was taken to get the best books in each department of learning. The executive of each state and territory and many learned societies were asked to donate published archives, most of which still were on the way.

The total number of volumes, including unbound documents, was about 1,850, and Stevens estimated the number would reach 2,000 when the remaining purchases and archives arrived. He mentioned acquiring a pair of globes and five mounted maps, all of which had been placed "in the library room." [stevenl note: The Washington State Library currently holds over 800 volumes (402 titles) of that original collection, including the globes. The legal part of the collection was moved to the Washington State Law Library when that collection was formed around 1910.]

Choosing a custodian of the books rested with the first Legislative Assembly, which adopted a measure providing for a territorial librarian and defining his duties. April 7, 1854, Kendall, a promising young man of 24 from Bethel, Maine, was given the job by a vote of 17 to 9.

Kendall had worked his way through Bowdoin College by teaching school. Later he had obtained employment in the swamp-land division in the national capital.

While he was working in the government office Kendall's name was mentioned for the post of secretary of Washington Territory. Failing to get this, he was elated upon obtaining an appointment with the Northern Pacific Railway Survey under Stevens. He arrived in Olympia late in December, 1853, in the detachment of F.W. Lander, one of the engineers.

The next February Kendall was elected clerk of the House and attained some prominence before he was made librarian, a post he held two years. The latter was not a remunerative office, its support coming from notaries' commissions, so Kendall, like his successors, had to find means of increasing his income. He was admitted to the bar and elected prosecuting attorney for the district.

During Kendall's tenure the library acquired 722 additional volumes, among them statute laws and state papers sent by governors and 40 or more samples of textbooks, the gift of D. Appleton. The librarian arranged the books alphabetically, making no attempt to catalog them by subject..

Kendall was succeeded as librarian by Henry R. Crosbie. In 1857 and 1858 Urban S. Hicks served and in 1859, Andrew J. Moses . J.C. Head was librarian in 1860 and 1861 and Thomas Taylor in 1862.

Liberties taken with the library are indicated by the following which Moses inserted in the Pioneer and Democrat in February, 1859:
"I hereby give notice that it is necessary for all persons knowing themselves to be in possession of books belonging to the Territorial Library to return same immediately.
"This request is made from the fact that the late passage of an act compels the present librarian to make out a new and complete catalog of all the books belonging to the Territorial Library.
"According to law the Territorial Library will be opened every Saturday from 9 in the forenoon until 7 in the evening and at other times when the Legislature, Supreme and District Courts are in session the usual hours."

Borrowers had not improved their habits by 1862, when Taylor threatened in the advertising columns of the paper:

"All persons having books belonging to the Territorial Library will please return them at once or the by-laws will be put in force."

By this time Kendall was aspiring to greater horizons. After two terms as a clerk of the House and two as prosecutor, he made a trip to Washington to seek a federal appointment and on the way visited certain Southern cities, gathering secret information on the Confederacy.

For this service Gen. Winfield Scott recommended that President Lincoln appoint Kendall superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington Territory. This did not please the Republicans, as Kendall had been identified with the Democratic Party until Lincoln's victory was assured. Upon his return he received written warnings that local Republicans were willing to remove him.

Kendall, though an eloquent orator, able, energetic and industrious, was noted for his unyielding opinions, bitter and juvenile prejudices , high-handed contempt for the views of others and his indiscreet utterances. Almost at once he fired an Indian Service doctor on charges of drunkeness, dismissed a prominent Methodist minister who was teaching an Indian school and refused advice about appointments from local agents. In less than six months his imperious actions resulted in his own removal.

Kendall, angered and naturally prone to reckless accusations, found an instrument with which to vent his wrath when the owner of the Overland Press was unable to complete payments on the paper. Kendall purchased the newspaper and with it the right to become public printer for the territory.

As an attorney, Kendall had been employed by the Puget Sound Agricultural Co. to remove a 70-year-old farmer, Horace Howe, from squatting on British property. Late in December, 1862, he published an editorial calling Howe a "venerable, gray-headed villain" and charging him with attempting to burn buildings on the farm of George B. Roberts, a company employee.

Howe went to town, found Kendall in front of the Pacific House [stevenl note: intersection at Capitol and State] talking to a printing client and beat him about the shoulders with a hazel stick he used as an ox goad.

Kendall drew a revolver, shot Howe in the side and ran. In the excitement of pursuing the attorney Howe did not realize he was wounded seriously until he collapsed. He was carried into Dr. Willard's office for treatment.

Howe's son, Horace, Jr., appeared at the newspaper office January 7, 1863, with a retraction of the arson charges, which he asked Kendall to print. He asked to see the publisher alone and the two men retired to a back room.

Six or eight minutes of arguing followed, then dead silence and a shot. Howe opened the door, a cocked derringer in his hand, and dashed into the street. He gave himself up to the sheriff, saying he had fired in self-defense.

Kendall meanwhile stood for a moment in the inner doorway, reached for the mantel for support, gasped, "I'm shot" and reeled forward on the hearth, his life snuffed out by a bullet through the heart.