The Search for the Girl Who Welcomed Villard
A photograph of a young woman who delivered a welcoming address at the university grounds is sought by the wife of Henry Villard, prompting a city-wide search.
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.
One day last week, a gentleman at the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad office received a letter from Henry Villard, in which that gentleman stated that his wife had preserved photographs of the city of Seattle taken during the visit of Mr. Villard and his party during the late spike celebration, and that she was very anxious to secure a photograph of the young lady who delivered the welcoming address at the university grounds, to be added to the collection. He also requested that the address of the young lady be sent to Mrs. Villard. The gentleman who received the letter, being a comparative stranger in the city, turned the letter over to a friend in the Post-Intelligencer office, who brought to his assistance a lady friend of Miss Nellie Powell, and after a search, they found a very good negative of Miss Powell at one of our local galleries, and from it had a picture made, which was satisfactory. With the photograph, the gentleman sent a letter, in which he said: 'I called at the Post-Intelligencer office to learn the address of Miss Powell, who delivered the welcoming address to you in Seattle, and whose photograph is herewith enclosed, and I found that she recently moved to New York with her mamma and brothers, and is living only a few blocks from your house, and will doubtless be pleased to have Mrs. Villard and yourself call upon her.'
“The gentleman who received the letter, being a comparative stranger in the city, turned the letter over to a friend in the Post-Intelligencer office, who brought to his assistance a lady friend of Miss Nellie Powell.”
This charming, almost accidental piece of investigative journalism highlights the intimate, interconnected nature of 1887 Seattle. It offers a glimpse into a time before digital archives, where history was maintained through physical photographs and word-of-mouth networks—a stark contrast to the sprawling, hyper-connected city Seattle has become today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.