A Tragic Afternoon at Whatcom Creek
A seven-year-old boy drowns while playing on log booms, sparking a somber community funeral.
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.
Johnny Gelene, aged seven years, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Gelene, of this city, was drowned near the mill at the mouth of Whatcom Creek during high tide on Thursday afternoon last. Little Johnny, in company with playmates, was playing on a boom of logs that lay in the bay, and it is presumed that he either missed his footing and slipped, or the rolling of a log suddenly precipitated him into the water. When found, he was lying in the water, immediately below the falls, face downward, and it is presumed that he had been in the water several minutes. Everything possible was done to resuscitate and bring him back to life, but all without avail, and little Johnny, who had only a few minutes before left his home in cheerful glee, was carried back a corpse to his parents, brothers and sisters. Funeral services were held on Friday evening, following, Rev. Mr. Hill officiating. Six little boys, schoolmates of Johnny, acted as pall bearers, and the remains were laid to rest in the glen on the south bank of Whatcom Creek, abreast the falls.
“Little Johnny, who had only a few minutes before left his home in cheerful glee, was carried back a corpse to his parents.”
Accidents around industrial logging sites were common and devastating for pioneer families in the Puget Sound region. Today, Whatcom Creek has been transformed from an industrial hub into a protected urban greenway and salmon-bearing stream, though it remains a site where the city's relationship with its working waterfront is remembered.
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