The Strange Mystery of the Snoqualmie Road
A young laborer is found dead in Lake Washington, but the investigation into his companions reveals a web of confusion and suspicious departures.
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.
Late Thursday evening it became rumored in the city that a murder had been committed among the men working on the road in the Snoqualmie Pass, and that parties supposed to be implicated in the affair had arrived in Seattle. The persons suspected were Thos. Moran, John Keardon, and Thomas Phelps, who had come down from Newcastle on the coal train Thursday afternoon. They were taken into custody by Officer Kelly and detained in the city jail all night, but it soon became evident there was no evidence on which to hold them, and Chief Woolery released them yesterday morning.
The facts of the case are about as follows: On last Saturday evening, a number of the workmen engaged on the Snoqualmie road were lounging in their hum on the shore of Lake Washington, when it was proposed that some of them cross the lake to a saloon on the other side and procure whisky for the crowd. In accordance with this suggestion, three of the men, Matthew Morrison, Thomas Comer, and George Hill, took a small boat and rowed to the saloon in question—run by a man named Spencer. Here all the men indulged to a greater or less extent in drinking, and Hill, who was a mere boy, became quite quarrelsome and was accordingly knocked down once or twice by the accommodating Morrison. After this the three left the saloon and started on their return to the camp.
Comer’s story: “When we arrived at the boat, Hill refused to cross the lake in the same boat with Morrison, and after some conversation, I got into a canoe which was near and asked Hill to come with me. He did so, and Morrison pushed off in the skiff. After we had started across in the canoe, Hill asked me whether I could swim. I told him that I could, but I did not care to just then. He then rocked the canoe from side to side and acted in such an imprudent manner that I did not judge it safe to cross the lake with him. I therefore landed and left Hill in the canoe, while I borrowed a lantern and walked back to camp.”
At 3 o’clock, Spencer, the saloon keeper, heard cries of murder, and the next morning the body of young Hill was found in the lake. Suspicion pointed strongly to Morrison, who had not returned to the camp and acted in a very strange manner. Yesterday afternoon it was learned he had been seen in Seattle and was taken into custody. His story was very much confused and he was imprisoned in the city jail to await the preliminary hearing.
“One of the very peculiar facts in this case is that the entire gang should suddenly leave work and post off toward Seattle. Just what prompted this action is a mystery.”
Early Seattle was a frontier boomtown where transient work crews often settled disputes in ways that the fledgling police force struggled to track. The 'Snoqualmie road' referenced is an early precursor to the major thoroughfares that would later facilitate the explosive growth of the region, yet the violence of this account highlights the lawlessness of these remote work camps.
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