The Seattle Police 'Missing Persons' Bulletin
In an era before global telecommunications, a desperate column in the Seattle press served as a human switchboard for families separated by the Alaska gold rush, the Klondike fever, and the transience of a booming frontier town.
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 large number of inquiries have been sent to the Seattle Police seeking information on missing persons. F.M. Wade, of Washington, D.C., seeks information concerning the whereabouts of Mr. A.H. Wade. Mrs. Mary Korthan, of Pullman, Wash., desires to locate W.C. Korthan, said to be working in this city. Mrs. Lula Mahoney, of Spokane, desires to communicate with her husband M.D. Mahoney, said to be in this city. H.W. Costello, of Kearney, Neb., has written for information of the whereabouts of Zip Postle, who is reported to live in Seattle. Mrs. M.D. Miller, of Nuthampton, N.Y., desires information about her cousin, A. Sherman, who was said to be en route to Seattle; according to Mrs. Miller, she has not heard from him since. Mrs. Dinh, of Nanaimo, B.C., wishes to locate Mrs. Burdett or Emma F. Brant. She came to Seattle on July 4 and has received no word from her since. Heath Parcels, an attorney of Tacoma, desires information of the whereabouts of a negro man named Ellis Cute, who he thinks may be in this city. M.A. Raynor, of Luray, has asked the police to locate Wallace Maynor, a resident of East Vancouver. He thinks it may be he who has been seen for seven years. Mrs. L.H.L., of Fort Worth, Texas, wishes to ascertain the whereabouts of Charles M. Michel, who is said to reside in this city. He is a hypnotist by profession.
“I am in Alaska to see my mother, the remark he made to a group of people, and since then he has not been seen.”
Long before digital platforms and social media, the daily newspaper was the primary tool for social discovery. These 'Missing Persons' columns reveal the immense instability of life during Seattle's rapid expansion, capturing the same themes of transit and social fragmentation that define the city's experience today.
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