An Elopement from Seattle
A local woman and her partner slip away in the night, choosing a life together in Whatcom.
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.
It is reported in the city that Bert Scriver left Seattle Wednesday night and Miss Celina Taylor, formerly Mrs. Nathaniel Young, slipped away on Wednesday evening. After being united in the city, they left for Whatcom to live. The couple is now in a residence in that city.
“It is reported in the city that Bert Scriver left Seattle Wednesday night and Miss Celina Taylor, formerly Mrs. Nathaniel Young, slipped away on Wednesday evening.”
Elopement notices were a common feature of Seattle's early tabloid scene, offering a brief, romanticized window into the social mobility and shifting domestic arrangements of the late 19th-century frontier. While today's headlines focus on the high cost of marriage in a city with skyrocketing rents, this 1899 snippet captures a time when a simple 'slip away' was the primary way to bypass social expectations or family oversight.
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