A Family Hunt in the Wilderness
A Missouri doctor travels to Seattle to find his missing uncle, only to uncover a trail of orphaned cousins scattered across the city.
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.
Dr. G. W. Fraker, of Excelsior Springs, Mo., who has been making a combined pleasure and business tour of this region for a couple of weeks, has had a singular experience during his visit. A great many years ago an uncle of his came West from Missouri, and nothing was ever heard of him afterward. The doctor, however, had his uncle in mind when he started on his trip. At the first place the doctor stopped, Pendleton, Or., he made inquiry about his uncle, and almost the first man he spoke to had known the missing man, stating he had taken up some land near Dogfish bay, near Seattle. Upon arriving in Seattle, the doctor found the story to be true and learned that his uncle had married and raised a large family, but that about five years ago both he and his wife had died very poor. He then learned that three of his cousins had been taken care of by the Orphans' Home in this city, two had been taken by families who had moved away, and of the other three no trace could be found. Of the three in the Orphans' Home, one was adopted, another was taken by a single man who moved to California and gave the child away. The doctor took the third cousin under his own care and has started for California to find the child who was given away there.
“So the doctor, instead of looking for one lost uncle, is now in search of seven lost cousins.”
The 'Dogfish Bay' mentioned is the historical name for what we now know as Liberty Bay in Kitsap County, reflecting how early settlers often referred to local geography by their own descriptive names. This story of a family fractured by poverty and dispersed into institutional care or private adoption echoes the ongoing challenges of foster care and family preservation in the Pacific Northwest.
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