A Father’s Frozen Grief on the Puyallup River
A four-year-old boy slips from the bank into the river while fishing, leaving his family in a state of shock as he drifts away.
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.
The body of Willie, the 4-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Simon Hogue, of 1212 Puyallup avenue, who was drowned in the Puyallup river yesterday afternoon, has not yet been recovered. Although the boy's father saw him fall into the river, the alarm was not given quick enough to allow the workmen on the new bridge to aid in rescuing him. Mr. Hogue and his three sons went to the river in the afternoon to fish. One of the boys got a bite soon after throwing his line in, and in the excitement of landing the fish, Willie accidentally fell from the bank of the river into the water. The father and brothers were so excited over the accident that they stood helpless and watched the child as he struggled to keep afloat. The tide was low and where the boy fell in the water was only about three feet deep. After the body of the child had appeared and gone down again several times, Mr. Hogue secured a boat and rowed frantically about, trying to get sight of the body, which by that time was being carried downstream by the current. The workmen at the bridge were informed of the accident and at once started searching for the body, but were unable to get any trace of it. The search continued until late last night, with no results. Early this morning another party was organized and a systematic hunt begun. The cap belonging to the dead boy was found in the bushes several hundred feet below the bridge. It is thought probable that the body was carried by the swift current into the bay and that further search near the scene of the accident will be useless. The parents of the boy are almost frantic with grief. They came to Tacoma about two months ago from Indiana. Since coming here Mr. Hogue has been unable to get work, and it is said the family is in destitute circumstances.
“The father and brothers were so excited over the accident that they stood helpless and watched the child as he struggled to keep afloat.”
The Puyallup River remains a dangerous and unpredictable body of water, though the industrialization of the Tideflats has transformed the setting of this 1904 tragedy into a heavily mapped, controlled zone. The story captures a haunting moment of parental powerlessness that resonates deeply even in our era of high-speed rescue services.
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