The Razor’s Edge: A Wenatchee Family Erased in One Night
On July 13, 1905, Charles H. Davis, a former bartender, killed his wife and infant son before taking his own life at their Boone Avenue home.
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.
SPOKANE, July 14.—Frenzied by melancholy and occasional brooding over fancied injuries, Charles H. Davis, formerly bartender at the Cowe saloon, slew his wife and 3 months old son and committed suicide himself in his home at 2415 Boone avenue, about 7:45 last night. Without a moment's warning, before they could utter a cry, the wife and the baby had their heads nearly severed from their bodies by a razor in the hands of the man who should have been their protector.
Davis then made two gashes in his own throat and fell weltering in a pool of his blood in the kitchen.
This tragic account from 1905 highlights the fragile nature of domestic stability in early Washington, where mental health was rarely discussed or treated, and economic precarity often fueled private despair. While modern communities have crisis intervention teams and social services, the suddenness of such violence remains a haunting reminder of the hidden struggles within households.
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