A 12-Year-Old Injured at a Seattle Shingle Mill
A twelve-year-old boy, working to support his widowed mother, is killed in a tragic mill accident in Seattle.
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.
One of the most distressing and heart-rending accidents it has been our lot to chronicle took place in Seattle yesterday under the following circumstances: Some two weeks ago, two boys, Theodore and Frank Lepheim, residing in North Seattle, appeared at the shingle-mill of Merriweather & Fredericks and applied for work, stating that their mother was a widow and they wanted to do something toward supporting her. They were both set to work, and everything went well till yesterday, when by some means Frank, the younger of the two, only 12 years of age, while at his work, got his arm too close to a rapid pulley driven by a belt. In less time than it takes to tell, his arm was caught and his little body was hurled around and round until his arm was literally twisted off above the elbow before the machinery could be stopped. On picking the poor child up, it was found that one arm had been twisted off, the other all shattered to pieces, his jaw broken, and his head and face lacerated and bleeding. Physicians were called, and the mangled form was conveyed to the hospital. The little fellow seemed to remain conscious through it all and for a considerable time afterward. All the afternoon he endured intense pain, but during the night his spirit took its flight and poor Frank Lepheim was no more. His heartbroken, widowed mother is broken down with grief over this terrible affair, and his surviving brother can hardly be comforted.
“His heartbroken, widowed mother is broken down with grief over this terrible affair, and his surviving brother can hardly be comforted.”
This tragedy highlights the brutal reality of child labor during Seattle's early industrial boom, a time when children were often forced into hazardous environments to sustain their families. It serves as a stark reminder of the human cost that underwrote the city's growth long before labor laws provided basic workplace protections.
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