Grain Warehouse Collapse Kills Pioneer Settler
A Frenchman sleeping in a Spofford grain office was crushed when heavy rains caused the building to buckle under its own weight.
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.
Napoleon Dupont, a Frenchman aged about 40, who came to Walla Walla a month ago from Pioche, Nevada, was instantly killed at an early hour this morning by the collapse of Sweeney's grain warehouse at Spofford, six miles from the city. The warehouse contained about 40,000 bushels of grain. A swale ran under the center of the structure, which had always made trouble in wet weather. The excessive rains had softened the ground so that the posts upon which the building rested settled, causing the building to collapse. Dupont was sleeping in the office when a pile of bags fell against the partition, crushing it in. A board struck Dupont on the head, crushing his skull. Dupont leaves a wife and two daughters in Nevada. Tax receipts found on his person indicate he had real estate worth $5,000, 1,000 head of cattle, and had driven 4,000 horses to this country.
“A swale ran under the center of it, which had always made trouble in wet weather.”
The massive agricultural losses described in the article mirror current climate anxiety in the Pacific Northwest, where intense weather shifts continue to threaten rural infrastructure. The story captures the vulnerability of early settlers who bet their lives and capital on the volatile landscape of the inland Washington territory.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.