Clerk Says Missing Man Left to Buy Oregon Farm
A Seattle neighborhood is gripped by a murder mystery over a man who simply packed his bags and left town.
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 rumor that Joseph Schoenbachler, who lives northwest of the Broadway street car cemetery terminus, has disappeared and been murdered is emphatically denied by Henry Uhlfelder, a clerk at Michael Ball's cigar store at 814 Second street. Uhlfelder reports the missing man told him he was going to Oregon to buy a farm. The police, however, are anxious and have been searching the woods near his home, convinced a crime occurred, despite the clear evidence he left voluntarily after a series of property disputes and family tensions. Schoenbachler, a 58-year-old Swiss native, had recently used the courts to gain possession of property from his sister's husband and was involved in complex land deals near Lake Union and Columbia. While authorities search for a corpse, he remains as alive as others have in previous 'mystery' cases that turned out to be mere departures.
“The police authorities, with one exception, believe a murder has been committed and are working day and night on the case. Meanwhile Schoenbachler is as much alive as Radloff was when Chief Jackson and his detectives were vainly trying to find him.”
Public panics over 'disappearances' often served as a proxy for social anxieties regarding property and family duty in 1890s Seattle. Today, our digital footprint makes such 'mysteries' vanish instantly, but the sensationalist impulse to turn a private departure into a lurid crime story remains a fixture of local news.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.