The Tragedy of a Wealthy Wanderer
After years of traveling from China to Alaska, a woman known as Ida Williams attempts to end her life in Port Townsend.
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.
Ida Williams, a woman well-known in Montana, California, and Washington, is lying at the point of death at her house on Madison street, near Jefferson, the result of two bullet wounds inflicted by herself early on Wednesday morning. The woman came down from Alaska about ten days ago, having taken a trip north for the purpose of looking after property interests at Juneau. She complained of illness shortly after her arrival, and it is presumed pain drove her to the rash act. Conflicting stories are told regarding this matter, and great attempts have been made to suppress the facts. It is learned, however, that one bullet entered the woman's right temple and the other the left side near the heart, both bullets glancing. The doctors say the wounds are not necessarily fatal. The woman has had a checkered career extending over a period of several years. She has made two trips to China, and is worth over $40,000.
“Conflicting stories are told regarding this matter, and great attempts have been made to suppress the facts.”
While 19th-century reporting frequently reduced women like Ida Williams to derogatory labels, the detail of her significant wealth ($40,000 in 1892, or over $1 million today) and her international travel to China and Alaska suggests a woman of agency and independence, far removed from the era's narrow stereotypes of the 'fallen woman.' Her struggle reminds us how precarious, private, and often dismissed the mental health crises of women in Victorian-era boomtowns could be.
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