His House Burned, Then He Vanished in a Stranger's Boat
A well-to-do Whidbey Island beach farmer lost his home to fire at dawn — then was last seen rowing off with an unknown man, and has not been heard from since.
John O. Phinney, of Phinney, on Whidbey Island, has been mysteriously missing for two weeks, and there are circumstances about his disappearance that cause his neighbors to suspect either that foul play or an accident has befallen him.
Mr. Phinney, who is a well-to-do beach farmer of about 55 years, lost his house by fire on the morning of February 28, and later in the day was seen by his hired man to leave the place in a small boat with a strange man, but the hired man did not know where he was going.
That was the last time he was seen, and he does not appear to have returned to Whidbey Island, for some goods which he shipped to Clinton for him about two weeks ago have not been called for.
His making the trip in a small boat is considered strange, as he was not in the habit of traveling on any craft but steamers. When in the city he usually stops at the Butler Hotel, but has not been seen there for a month.
Mr. Phinney is a brother-in-law of Capt. F. J. Burns, of this city, and a brother of the former superintendent of the Ludlow mills. A party of his friends will leave this morning on the steamer Idaho to search for him.
“That was the last time he was seen... His making the trip in a small boat is considered strange, as he was not in the habit of traveling on any craft but steamers.”
A house fire, a mysterious companion, and a small boat: the ingredients of a mystery that the paper never resolves. Whidbey Island's quiet coves and ferry-to-steamer connections could swallow a man without a trace in 1895, and the case vanished from print as completely as Phinney himself. Today's headlines still swarm with disappearances in rural waterfront Washington, but the tools — searches, forensics, statewide alerts — have changed utterly.
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