An Unknown Man Found Dead in South Seattle
A woman discovering a man's body in the brush near a local spring leads to an investigation that unearths a tragic, nameless end.
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.
An unknown man was found dead in the brush on the hillside, about a quarter of a mile north of the Claussen-Sweeney Brewing Company's bottling works on Grant street, about 5 o'clock last evening. Mrs. Fred Schram, who lives close by the place, went to the spring to get a bucket of water and saw a man's feet protruding through the bushes close by the spring. She informed her husband, who upon investigation, found the man dead. Deputy Coroner Green was notified and brought the body to Bonney Stewart's undertaking rooms. There was nothing on the body by which it could be identified, nor could the cause of death be made out. Mr. Green concluded he might have gone in there drunk or sick and died suddenly. The body was that of a man about 30 to 35 years of age. The clothes were quite good, and in one pocket were found two photographs, one of a woman and the other of a little girl, taken in Butte, Montana. A badge with the inscription, 'Butte Work-Union, 1890,' was also found, showing that he must have come from there. No money was found.
“Mrs. Fred Schram, who lives close by the place, went to the spring to get a bucket of water and saw a man's feet protruding through the bushes.”
The discovery of a transient worker dying alone in the brush highlights the precarious reality of laborers who followed the boom-and-bust cycles across the West. Today, the location near the former Claussen-Sweeney brewery (in the Industrial District/SODO) remains a site of industrial work, though the transient lives passing through face different, but similarly stark, vulnerabilities.
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