The Teenager Who Enlisted Himself
A young man with no family and no means travels from Skagit County to Seattle to find a legal guardian, simply so he can join the U.S. Army.
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.
A young man giving the name James Tyson, age 19, walked into Attorney Miller’s office and asked to have a guardian appointed. 'Have you got any property?' asked Mr. Miller. 'No,' was the reply. 'My parents died in Wabash county, Minn., when I was a child and my grandmother died when I was 12. Since then I have got along as best I could. I came here a few weeks ago and went to Skagit county, where I worked in the woods. I tried to get a guardian appointed in that county, but they told me to come to Mr. Miller at Seattle.' The young man explained his object: 'I want to join the United States Army, and without the consent of parents or a guardian I cannot do so.' Judge Humes listened to the matter and appointed W. Tucker as guardian without bonds. Mr. Tucker accompanied his protege to the United States recruiting office and gave his consent for him to enlist.
“I want to join the United States Army, and without the consent of parents or a guardian I cannot do so.”
Today, joining the military is a complex bureaucratic process, but this story highlights the stark reality of orphans and itinerant workers in the 1890s, where 'having no one' was a literal legal hurdle to self-determination. It is a striking reminder of how mobile and rootless the workforce was in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the 19th century.
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