The Elopement That Gripped Whatcom
When a thirteen-year-old girl ran away with a suitor, the resulting pursuit and public scandal exposed the harsh limits of autonomy and safety for youth in the 1890s.
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.
Jesse Crandall, also known as Scott, was bound over in the sum of $1,200 for seducing Anna Ellisworth, a girl under the age of consent. The couple was in a lodging-house on the night of March 24, and on the 25th, they went to Everett, returning to Whatcom yesterday morning when Crandall was arrested. Anna Ellisworth is 13 years of age and is a step-daughter of J. T. Griffin. Her stepfather had been tracking the couple since they left. Upon his return, he and Officer Underbrook, armed with a warrant, started after the fugitives. The couple was traced to Mukilteo, where they stayed Friday night, March 23, as man and wife. It is stated that the girl was heard crying in the morning, begging her 'doctor' or lover to take her home. Crandall became alarmed at the suspicion aroused by their appearance, and they walked to Everett. At Everett, it was stated that Crandall endeavored to put the girl in one of the houses of ill-repute, but the keepers refused to receive her, a claim the women there later denied. After further travels, including a trip by stolen boat toward Marysville, they were finally apprehended.
“The girl was heard crying in the morning and asking her doctor or lover to take her home.”
While framed in the era's sensationalist and patriarchal language of 'shame,' this story highlights a persistent tension in Washington's history: the vulnerability of youth within a society that criminalized runaway behavior while often failing to protect them from exploitation by older adults.
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