A Pioneer's Desperate End
After business reverses and personal tragedy, a pioneer hardware merchant dies by suicide in his North Seattle store.
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.
T. B. Elder, a pioneer hardware merchant of North Seattle and former member of the territorial legislature in 1887, hanged himself in the basement of his store in the Leader building on Front street, between Bell and Battery streets, yesterday morning. The act was the result of mental distress caused by financial reverses and the death of his son, George, who was killed by a train at the Lake Shore crossing on Vine street in 1891. Mr. Elder had struggled with declining business since the burned district was rebuilt, and the weight of unpaid notes to a Portland hardware firm drove him to despair. Despite the help of his nephew, John H. Elder, the merchant could not overcome his despondency. His body was discovered in the store basement by his clerk, A. L. Wilson. He leaves a widow and two children.
“I don't know what is the trouble with me. Of late I can't sleep and I see all sorts of things. But you'll stand by me, won't you?”
Elder’s story highlights the brutal vulnerability of small business owners during the rapid, often volatile economic cycles of early Seattle. Today, the corner of 1st and Bell (near where Front street ran) is a focal point for housing density and commercial development, but the struggle of shopkeepers to survive shifting urban landscapes remains a persistent theme in Seattle’s history.
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