A Dive Into the Black River, and Two Brothers Still at Sea
A young Swiss immigrant bathing at the Renton landing strikes a submerged snag and drowns — while his two brothers are aboard a ship from Europe, not yet knowing.
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.
Renton, Aug. 29. — [Special.] — A young man named Robert Metzberger was drowned in Black River at the Renton boat landing about 7 o'clock this evening. Deceased and several other parties went to the river to go bathing, and Metzberger, being somewhat in advance, undressed, and as his partner came up dived into the water where it was about eight feet deep, and as he did not come to the surface in a reasonable time, his partner raised an alarm. Grant Lejont, captain of the steamer Marion A., ran to the rescue, but could not find the body for some minutes; after searching farther down the river he discovered the body and got it to the surface by means of a rope, but life was extinct. On recovering the body a large scar on the left cheek and over the left eye was found, which was evidently caused by striking a snag on the bottom of the river. Deceased was about 28 years old, and has no relatives in this section, but has two brothers on the way to this country from Switzerland, of which he is a native. The coroner has been notified.
“Deceased was about 28 years old, and has no relatives in this section, but has two brothers on the way to this country from Switzerland.”
The Black River once wound wild through Renton before it was dredged and channeled — but the human core of this story hasn't aged: a young immigrant dies alone in a strange place while the family who would mourn him is still mid-ocean, unaware. It reads today as a reminder of how much of the region was built by people who arrived with no one and nothing.
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