The Jeweler Who Was Reported Dead
A Seattle businessman writes to the paper to clarify that he is very much alive, despite a premature obituary.
Amador City, Feb. 7, 1895. Dear Sir: I received a copy of your paper of 25th January, containing a notice of my death. As I am still in good health please contradict it so that my many friends in Seattle may know that I am still in the land of the living and expect to be with them in the spring if you don't kill me again before then. Yours truly, Job M. Beamans, Jeweler, of Front Street, Seattle.
“I am still in the land of the living and expect to be with them in the spring if you don't kill me again before then.”
In an era before instant digital verification, local newspapers often relied on rumors or misidentified reports, leading to the occasional awkward 'I'm not dead yet' letter. Today, while we have social media to correct the record, the fear of being prematurely written off by one's community remains a uniquely human anxiety.
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