Fatal Farm Accident in the Moxee Valley
A longtime Moxee Company employee dies after a gruesome machinery accident, leaving behind questions about his missing life savings.
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.
Samuel Keegan, who has been in the employ of the Moxee company for the past four years, died on Tuesday from injuries received in a runaway on the previous day. Just how the accident occurred is not known, as there were no witnesses, but Keegan was running a mower, and evidently the breaking of a wheel caused the horses to run away and he was thrown under the machinery, receiving twenty-one cuts in the head and a deep gash in the breast. Death was the result of concussion of the brain, and he never regained consciousness after being found. The deceased was 43 years of age and a native of the Isle of Man. He was a steady, hard-working man and held in much esteem by all of his associates. It was supposed that Keegan was the possessor of several hundred dollars, but no trace of the money can be found, nor are there any papers having bearing on the matter.
“It was supposed that Keegan was the possessor of several hundred dollars, but no trace of the money can be found.”
Accidents involving heavy machinery remain a leading cause of workplace injury in Washington’s agricultural sector. The mystery of Keegan’s vanished savings echoes the vulnerability of many workers in the era, who often carried their life savings on their person or in small, insecure holdings.
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