The Tragedy of a Lonely Death in Electron
A construction foreman died after a fall, mistaken for a drunk by the very men he had gone to check on.
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.
John McGrath, a foreman on the construction work for the Columbia Improvement company at Electron, died at the Fannie Paddock hospital Saturday night. Death was the result of injuries received in a peculiar accident near Electron Thursday night. As is the usual custom, a number of men who were working under McGrath went to a road house to spend their money Thursday night, having received their pay that day. McGrath later went to round up the men and see that they were all right. On the way back to the camp he passed over a trestle about 15 feet high. Owing to a weak ankle resulting from a sprain, he stumbled and fell to the ground in such a way that the back of his head was injured. He was found there unconscious by several of the laborers who passed over the trestle on their way to camp that night. They went down to him and believed that he was merely drunk. They carried him out of sight and left him on the ground, believing that when he had slept off the effects of the drink he would be all right. The next day he did not appear at camp and Friday night a search was made for him. He was found just where he had been left. He died about 6 o'clock Saturday night.
“They went down to him and believed that he was merely drunk. They carried him out of sight and left him on the ground.”
This story highlights the dangers of industrial work and the precarious social safety nets for laborers in the early 20th century. The assumption that an injured, unconscious man was simply 'drunk' reflects a harsh, unforgiving culture of the era that persists in how society often views those suffering from substance abuse or medical crises in public spaces today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.