The Lonely End of a Civil War Veteran
After years spent laboring in Seattle's saloons, Alexander 'Scotty' Brown dies in the back room of a Jackson Street establishment.
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.
Alexander Brown, commonly called 'Scotty' by Jackson and Third Street saloon men, was found dead in a back room of the Morning Star saloon yesterday morning. Brown lived in this city about three years, making his living by cleaning out saloons and doing odd jobs for people who lived on Jackson Street west of South Fifth. He was fond of liquor and took his daily allowance with great regularity. On Wednesday, he was not feeling well and during the afternoon fell asleep near the stove in the Morning Star saloon. Someone moved him into the rear room, where he slept on until death put him into a deeper sleep. The coroner decided that death was due to chronic alcoholism. The remains were removed to Bonney & Stewart’s undertaking rooms, where the funeral services will take place this afternoon under the auspices of the G.A.R. 'Scotty' was not a member of the order, but owing to his destitute condition and the fact that he served in the United States Navy during the Rebellion, the order came to his assistance.
“He was fond of liquor and took his daily allowance with great regularity, as the color of his nose testified.”
Alexander Brown's story illustrates the grim reality of the 'forgotten' class of 19th-century itinerant laborers, many of whom were veterans left behind by the social safety nets of their day. While G.A.R. posts acted as social support for Union veterans then, his life and death on Jackson Street mirror the ongoing struggles of Seattle’s contemporary unhoused and vulnerable populations living in our rapidly shifting urban core.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.