The Young Newsie of Leavenworth
A ten-year-old boy, known for his relentless work ethic delivering papers through the deep winter snows, passes away after a two-week battle with diphtheria.
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.
At his home in Leavenworth on Tuesday night, Kenneth Elwood Smith passed away, aged 10 years, 1 month, and 21 days. Born in Jackson, Michigan, he leaves behind his parents, R. J. and Ida Smith, along with three brothers and two sisters. Death was caused by diphtheria after an illness of 14 days. Kenneth, though a very small boy for his age, was a rustler. He has worked the past two years as a newsboy, delivering the daily papers to the entire town. During the winter months, when the snow was so deep it seemed almost an impossibility for a child of his size to hold his position, he managed always to be on hand promptly with his papers. He had an unusual number of friends and admirers among the grown-ups for his energy and industry. The bereaved family has the sympathy of the entire community.
“During the winter months when the snow was so deep it seemed almost an impossibility for a child of his size to hold his position, he managed always to be on hand promptly with his papers.”
Child labor was a normalized and often essential aspect of life in early 20th-century Leavenworth, where young children often supported their families. This tragedy reflects the fragility of life in an era before vaccines for common childhood diseases, and the profound impact a single child could have on a tight-knit frontier community.
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