Abandoned and Alone in a Growing City
A woman arrives in Seattle looking for a new start, only to be left destitute by a husband who vanished with their life savings.
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.
James D. Plummer, a carpenter, arrived from Roslyn on Friday last with his wife and rented a small house at the corner of Spring and Sixth streets. Yesterday morning, Mrs. Plummer, who is a comely woman of eight and twenty, applied to Chief Mitchell for assistance, saying that her husband had disappeared the day previous with all their earnings, and she feared he had left the city. Inquiry at the ticket offices developed the fact that a man answering Plummer's description had purchased a ticket to Roslyn the day previous, and Mrs. Plummer's worst fears were confirmed. The lady says Plummer had $800 about him on arriving in the city. She cannot believe her husband has deserted her, avowing that he has gone to the mines to prospect and will return to her at once. In the meantime, Mrs. Plummer is left destitute.
“Mrs. Plummer, who is a comely woman of eight and twenty, applied to Chief Mitchell for assistance, saying that her husband had disappeared the day previous with all their earnings.”
This 1888 account of a sudden, isolating housing and financial crisis echoes the precarity felt by many newcomers in Seattle today. Mrs. Plummer's struggle to secure stable housing while facing the total loss of her financial safety net is a stark reminder that the 'boom town' experience has always left its most vulnerable residents behind.
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