The Romantic Elopement at the Parker Ranch
When an overbearing father tried to marry his daughter off to a wealthy neighbor, a young suitor took matters into his own hands in a daring Thanksgiving escape.
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.
The victim of a first love is a pitiable creature, particularly when there are 'obstacles.' I felt sorry for poor Shorty Fleming. His brother Jack was one obstacle, but Sam Parker, Nettie’s papa, was the true barrier. Parker, a shrewd Maine Yankee, did not believe in the ability of womankind to use reason and insisted that his daughter, Nettie, marry well. When Shorty—a good-natured but penniless lad—persisted, the old man arranged a match for her with Morris Cottrell, a wealthy rancher, to be celebrated on Thanksgiving Day. Shorty disappeared for two months, leaving his family in a state of worry. On Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, I ran into Shorty in town; he had returned with a new mustache and a bold plan. On the day of the wedding, with guests gathered at the Parker ranch, Nettie stood by the front door waiting for the ceremony to begin. Suddenly, there was a knock. Nettie opened it, grabbed a hat and coat from a chair, and vanished out the door with Shorty. They fled on horseback, while the guests, led by Sam Parker, found the stables had been securely nailed shut by a mysterious accomplice. Shorty and Nettie were married by a justice of the peace, and upon their return, even the jilted Cottrell had the grace to accept the inevitable, remarking that it was better it happened then than later.
“It is far better to have happened now than—than later. And—as it is—I think maybe there will be only one unhappy person instead of three.”
While elopements are the stuff of romantic fiction, the 'Parker Ranch' setting captures a time when Seattle's rural outskirts were dominated by rigid social hierarchies and land-owning patriarchs. The story of a young couple defying class expectations remains a perennial thread in the city's growth from a frontier town to a modern metropolis.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.