The Perilous Trek of Miss O'Leary
A young woman survives a harrowing, lonely walk from Portland to Seattle in the depths of winter.
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.
Miss O'Leary, a young woman who had been deserted by her employers in Portland, Oregon, walked into the city this morning from the Northern Pacific tracks where she had spent the night. She fled Portland, but took the wrong road and wandered through the woods for two days without food or shelter. She finally reached the railroad tracks and followed them for two days, sleeping in the woods at night, until she finally arrived in Seattle. She is a girl of about twenty years of age, and she appeared quite exhausted and hungry upon her arrival. The charitable ladies of the city are now caring for her.
“She fled Portland, but took the wrong road and wandered through the woods for two days without food or shelter.”
Long before the modern I-5 corridor or transit networks, travel between Portland and Seattle was a physically precarious endeavor. This story highlights the isolation and vulnerability of transient workers in the late 19th century, a stark reminder of the long history of housing and survival struggles for the unhoused in Seattle.
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