A Local Champion Taken Too Soon
Amos Gardner, a well-known Seattle businessman, passes away following an illness contracted while nursing his children.
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.
Amos Gardner, one of the best-known and most energetic business men in Seattle, died of pneumonia at his home, 614 Taylor street, yesterday evening at 6 o'clock, after a short illness. He leaves a wife and five small children, the eldest boy and girl being twins 12 years of age. Three of the children have been seriously ill and it was by exposure in nursing them that the fatal attack was brought on. Mr. Gardner was born in Charlotte, Me., December 22, 1852. Fifteen years ago he came to Walla Walla and was for many years engaged in the nursery business. About the time of the fire he came to Seattle with his family and engaged in the real estate business, continuing in it up to the time of his death. At the time of his death Mr. Gardner was in the real estate business in partnership with H. F. Stratton, in the firm of Gardner & Stratton.
“In all of his business dealings he was the soul of honor and his word was never doubted.”
Gardner’s story captures a specific, painful reality of 19th-century life: the vulnerability of families to infectious disease before the era of modern antibiotics, where even a successful businessman could be lost to pneumonia while caring for his own sick children.
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