A Tragedy of Grief in Pioneer Square
After his brother drowned at sea, a Seattle real estate agent died of a broken heart just days later.
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 bodies of two brothers, W. D. Cook, a Seattle real estate agent, and I. L. Cook, an engineer, lay side by side at the undertaking rooms of Bonney & Stewart. The tragedy began last Wednesday when I. L. Cook was drowned in the North River near South Bend. The news was received by his brother in Seattle by telegram, and shortly after, W. D. Cook was stricken with heart disease. He suffered through several attacks over the next few days, and on the morning of his death, he stood by the window of his house at 1416 Second Street, waiting for a physician who never arrived. He returned to his chair, trembled, and died. His son, E. G. Cook, and other family members had to organize a joint funeral for the two brothers.
“The circumstances which brought about the pathetic case had its beginning last Wednesday when I. L. Cook was drowned.”
This heartbreaking story of sudden loss reminds us of the high stakes of pre-modern communication, where a telegram could deliver news that would literally stop a heart. The location, 1416 Second Street, sits in what is now the heart of downtown Seattle, a bustling urban center far removed from the quiet, tragic domesticity experienced by the Cook family in 1891.
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