The Apostles of South Union
Thirty people in a rural Thurston County settlement prepare for the Rapture, waiting for the bodily ascension of the faithful.
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.
Olympia, March 28—Tomorrow is the day fixed in the rural settlement near South Union, in this county, when Christ is to appear and, gathering up the faithful, to convey them bodily to heaven. About thirty people are said to be affected by the delusion and it is reported that great excitement prevails among those who believe that they are to be transplanted to glory.
“About thirty people are said to be affected by the delusion and it is reported that great excitement prevails among those who believe that they are to be transplanted to glory.”
Millenarian movements and doomsday cults have long found a quiet home in the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest, appearing periodically throughout Washington history. This 1892 report mirrors modern anxieties about insular communities and the recurring human search for transcendence amid changing social tides.
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