The High Cost of Commuting on the Rails
After seeking work at a local mill, a man attempts to board a moving freight train in Centralia, leading to a life-altering accident.
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.
O. F. Parker lost his left hand last night. As told by himself, he lost the hand trying to pass between two freight cars of a train switching in the yards. He says he watched the Ballard & Bond mill the night before, and slept at the Arlington all day yesterday. Having decided to walk to Chehalis to transact some necessary business, he left the hotel and stepped onto the track close by. He says a brakeman of the switching train asked him to ride. Anyhow, he wanted to get across the track. The hour was about 7:30 and the only illumination was that from the electric light on Tower Avenue. In attempting to put his foot on the brake beam he slipped and fell, and his only surprise is that his body escaped the wheels. Without any outcry he walked to the hotel. The doctors found amputation necessary and took off the arm between the elbow and the wrist.
“In attempting to put his foot on the brake beam he slipped and fell, and his only surprise is that his body escaped the wheels.”
This 1892 account highlights the extreme hazards workers faced while navigating the infrastructure of a growing industrial state. Today's debates over public transit and transit-oriented development echo this historical struggle to move through Seattle's industrial corridors safely.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.