Smelter Worker Crushed in Workplace Accident
A man working at the Tacoma smelter was killed while moving freight cars; a tragic reminder of the dangers of industrial labor at the turn of the century.
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.
While sitting on a freight car on a switch at the smelter at 1 o'clock this afternoon, Ferdinand Anderson fell from the car and was crushed to death under the wheels. His body was terribly mangled. The unfortunate man had been employed at the smelter for some time and had been engaged in running the cars out of the way when the ore had been removed. It was while engaged in this work today that he met his death. The only eye-witness to the accident, so far as is known at present, was John Buchanan, president of the North End Lumber company. Deputy Coroner Mellinger was called and took charge of the remains. Anderson was a single man and resided at Highland Avenue and North Forty-sixth Street.
“His body was terribly mangled. The unfortunate man had been employed at the smelter for some time.”
This incident occurred at the ASARCO smelter site, a location that defines much of Tacoma's industrial history and, more recently, its environmental legacy. Occupational safety remains a critical concern in industrial work, echoing the same hazards faced by laborers in the early 1900s.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.