Tragedy at the Yesler Mill
A worker ignoring safety warnings perishes after a sawmill accident.
Some time since, Mr. Anderson, managing owner of the Yesler Mill & Manufacturing Company, employed a man named W. N. Smith to run the lath saw. It soon became evident that the man did not understand the work, and was accordingly transferred to the boarding machine, in a different section of the mill. However, somehow by some means Mr. Smith got back to the big saw, and while there it rolled over on him, crushing his head in a frightful manner, so much so in fact that it is impossible for him to recover. He was taken to the hospital, where everything possible was done to relieve his sufferings. No blame can be attached to Mr. Anderson or anyone else connected with the mill, as both he and the foreman had instructed Mr. Smith to keep away from the big saw, unless called upon to go there by the head sawyer. The unfortunate man, probably anxious to make himself generally useful, went out of his latitude, and thereby met with the terrible accident which befell him. He leaves a son in this city, and a family in Southern Oregon.
“The unfortunate man, probably anxious to make himself generally useful, went out of his latitude, and thereby met with the terrible accident.”
Early Seattle was built on the dangerous, back-breaking labor of its mills, where safety protocols were often informal and accidents frequent. Today, the Yesler Way site is a central corridor for housing development, though the industrial violence that built the city remains a largely forgotten chapter of the waterfront's history.
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