The Struggle for Custody of Hazel Buell
A young girl rescued from a city 'resort' becomes the subject of a custody battle between her biological father and a teacher.
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.
Mr. and Mrs. Judson P. Wilson appeared before Judge Langley in the probate court yesterday and petitioned the court to grant an order permitting them to adopt Hazel Effie Buell, a pretty black-eyed little girl of 4 years. The little girl's mother is dead, and her father, Hardy E. Buell, who resides in this city, is said to be incapable of properly caring for the child. Last August, Mrs. C. H. Bither rescued the waif from a disreputable resort in the lower part of the city, and a few days thereafter the little tot was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Davis. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Davis are willing that Prof. Judson, who is a teacher of penmanship in the city schools, should take the child. Judge Langley continued the case until December 8 at 10 o'clock in the morning in order to allow the father of the child to be in court and show cause why an order granting the petition for adoption should not be made.
“Last August, Mrs. C. H. Bither rescued the waif from a disreputable resort in the lower part of the city.”
This 1893 custody fight over a 'waif' highlights the precariousness of childhood in early Seattle, where social services were often informal or mediated by neighbors and moral judgment. Today, the city’s child welfare system operates under rigid state oversight, yet the core tension—balancing biological parental rights against the stability of a new home—remains a deeply familiar civic issue.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.