The Woman Who Chased Her Lover from Seattle to Semiahmoo
A fugitive, a jilted pursuer, and a steamer route through Puget Sound made for one of the summer’s strangest chases.
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.
A singular case of fugitive and pursuit recently occurred in these parts. On the steamer Washington a few days ago were three passengers—a lady and two gentlemen. The men, or at least one of them, was a fugitive from justice in Oregon, where he stood charged, or was recently tried, for counterfeiting or forgery. This man was an ordinary-looking individual, about thirty years of age, and he was accompanied by a confederate of probably forty-five. Both were pursued by a sharp-featured, careworn woman of about 25. The young man, she claimed, was her 'lover,' a fugitive from justice, on his way to British Columbia, who was desirous of getting rid of her, but she insisted upon following him up. At Seattle he tried to dodge her, but she managed to keep an eye on him, and got aboard the same steamer with him, bound for Whatcom. On reaching LaConner, and at every landing along the route, he tried to elude her and stop off, but she would get off with him, and only go aboard when he did, just as the steamer pulled out. At Whatcom she at one time thought she had lost him, and sought the advice of a gentleman, to whom she revealed her trouble. She desired to telegraph to the Governor of Oregon for a requisition, but that was impracticable. She afterward found him, and both got along amicably together until the departure of the steamer for Semiahmoo, when, by a pre-concerted arrangement with the captain, she stepped aboard and the boat pulled out from the wharf. At this juncture her refugee lover openly protested against further pursuit, and threatened her with violence; but, finding this of no avail, he desired the captain to put back and let him go ashore, which was refused, and the 'happy couple' were taken to Semiahmoo. What further trouble they had at that point we know not, but we observed the lady aboard the Washington, bound for Seattle, on last Tuesday. She probably came to the conclusion that it was useless to pursue him into British Columbia, and left him at Semiahmoo.
“At Seattle he tried to dodge her, but she managed to keep an eye on him, and got aboard the same steamer with him, bound for Whatcom.”
The story reads like a Victorian melodrama, but it also shows how steamboats connected Puget Sound towns—and how a woman without legal standing had to improvise to pursue a man across jurisdictions. Today, extradition and domestic violence protections would frame such a case very differently.
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