The Infidel of the Hoh River
A settler known as Edward Cameron summoned a friend to dinner, said he had taken poison, and left a note refusing religious burial.
Port Townsend Call.
The Call's special correspondent at Hoh River gives further particulars of the suicide of William Campbell, the popular settler of that place. Campbell sent for a friend to come and visit him, and then committed suicide, telling his guest at the dinner table that he had taken poison and was determined to die. The dead man had been known in the Hoh country as Edward Cameron, but according to a communication written shortly before his tragic end, his real name was William Alliston Campbell, and he was a native of Lincolnshire, England—instead of Scotland, as was reported yesterday.
Following is the last communication left by the dead man:
Hoh River, March 18, 1895.
To Whom It May Concern: This is to certify that I intend to commit suicide. I make this statement so that all doubt in regard to my death may be set aside. I wish to be buried in my native land, and request that no religious ceremonies be performed, as I hope to lie as I have lived, an infidel. I wish the news of my death to be communicated to my uncle, W. Campbell, of [garbled], Lincolnshire, England. My true name is William A. Campbell, although I am known as Edward Cameron. I have taken arsenic and morphine to stop the pain.
WILLIAM ALLISTON CAMPBELL.
“I request that no religious ceremonies be performed, as I hope to lie as I have lived, an infidel.”
In 1895 the Hoh River was remote enough that a settler could live for years under an assumed name; his death reached Seattle readers through a Port Townsend correspondent. Campbell's calm announcement and his insistence on an infidel burial make the item a stark assertion of personal control at the end of a hidden life. The same questions—rural isolation, mental-health care, and the right to choose how one dies—remain live in Washington today.
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