The Sudden End of a Tacoma Tycoon
A wealthy real estate developer and pillar of the financial community takes his own life following financial struggles.
The body of George A. Sumner, aged 55 years, was found tonight under the bridge over the gulch at the exposition building on North Tacoma Avenue, with a 32-caliber bullet through his heart. For several weeks he has been ailing and is also known to have been somewhat financially embarrassed, although he was rated at $100,000. He owned several fashionable flats and much real estate here, having invested largely since coming here from Paterson, N. J., three years ago. He was robust in appearance and prominent in financial circles. Yesterday afternoon Sumner disappeared and it is now known that he bought a revolver and went to the secluded spot about dark. He first tried the revolver by firing two shots into the timbers of the bridge and then shot himself through the heart. Some say that hereditary insanity caused Sumner's suicide. His wife and son reside here.
“For several weeks he has been ailing and is also known to have been somewhat financially embarrassed, although he was rated at $100,000.”
Sumner's story highlights the era's brutal financial volatility, mirroring modern anxieties about wealth and economic stability in a rapidly developing city. The 'exposition building' location reflects the Gilded Age obsession with civic expansion that often preceded painful economic corrections.
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