Tragedy in the Trenches: A Fatal Seattle Construction Collapse
Two laborers were killed instantly when a sewer excavation on 25th Street succumbed to shifting earth and rock.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A contractor named Doehlan had a force of men at work this afternoon putting in a small sewer in front of the home of J. Heldt, on 25th Street. Two workmen, Patrick Cunningham and Pherigo, were engaged in working from the main sewer to the side of the street. About four o'clock the earth caved on the men, killing Pherigo instantly. Cunningham was alive when taken out by his fellow workmen, but died in two minutes. The earth that caved on the unfortunate fellows was only two feet thick, but was composed of wet rock and sufficiently thick to crush them. Cunningham was a married man. Pherigo was single and had been working for the contractor but four days.
“The earth that caved on the unfortunate fellows was only two feet thick, but was composed of wet rock and sufficiently thick to crush them.”
This 1887 report of a trench collapse mirrors contemporary concerns about worker safety and site negligence in Seattle’s rapidly densifying neighborhoods. While industrial safety standards have evolved, the precarious nature of labor in the city's construction sector remains a persistent, high-stakes issue.
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