The Three-Year-Old Who Stowed Away to Gilman
When a toddler wandered away from his Second and Lenora home, he didn't just get lost—he boarded a train and embarked on an accidental adventure to the coal mining town of Issaquah.
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.
The three-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. West, who strayed away from his home at the corner of Second and Lenora streets Friday afternoon, was recovered yesterday. It appears that the youngster walked straight from home to the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern depot at Smith's Cove. A train was ready to leave, and he clambered onto the platform of a car in some way. Once aboard, he found some other boys on the car and had a fine time playing. No one happened to notice until the train reached West Gilman Junction that the child was unaccompanied. Then, investigation showed that he was alone and was just out on a little lark. Conductor McKinney took him in charge and kept him at Gilman Friday night. The youngster could not tell the names of his parents or where he lived, and Mr. McKinney was considerably perplexed until yesterday's Post-Intelligencer arrived at Gilman with the news of the little one's disappearance. The little fellow was sent back to Seattle on the next train and taken to his overjoyed mother. The runaway took the whole proceeding very coolly, and did not cry or appear afraid of anything while away from home. A closer watch will be kept on him in future.
“The youngster could not tell the names of his parents or where he lived, and Mr. McKinney was considerably perplexed.”
This 1888 incident of a child wandering from his home near the corner of 2nd and Lenora—now the dense urban heart of Belltown—highlights how Seattle's transit infrastructure has long been a source of both wonder and anxiety for families. While the child's journey to the old mining town of Gilman (modern-day Issaquah) ended safely, the story reflects the era's transition from an intimate, walkable frontier town to a place connected by the massive, impersonal reach of the railroad.
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