Ingebright and Lars Wold were two brothers who owned a large hops 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 hops 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.