The Narrow Escape on Whidbey Island
A quiet Sunday trip to church turns to tragedy for the Kellogg family after a pair of startled horses wreck their wagon in a field of stumps.
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.
We have the following particulars relating to the accident which befell several members of Dr. Kellogg's family on Whidbey Island some days since. On last Sunday, as the wife, daughter, and son of Dr. Kellogg were returning from the church on the Island in company with a gentleman by the name of Hill, and Miss Agnes Winsor of Seattle, they reached the gate at the entrance to the lane near the Doctor’s residence. While attempting to pass by the partly opened gate into the lane, without opening it wider, the horses took fright. Mr. Hill and Mr. Albert Kellogg either got out or were thrown out, when the horses escaped their control and ran into a field containing a great many stumps, throwing the ladies out of the wagon. All escaped with comparatively slight injuries except Miss Alice Kellogg, who, besides receiving internal injuries and having her collar bone broken, was rendered unconscious for twenty-four hours. She is now lying very low from her injuries; her mind wanders, she is troubled with spitting of blood, and it is feared the result may be dangerous to her health, if not fatal. Fortunately, the Doctor arrived home a couple of hours after the accident, and everything that could be done was done for the relief of those injured. The Doctor has the sympathy of the whole community in this severe calamity that has befallen his family.
“Suffer little children to remain at home and bring them not, for verily I say unto you, it is far better for them to quietly repose in their trundle beds than to be weeping and wailing and gnashing their gums.”
In 1876, Whidbey Island was a rugged landscape of stump-filled fields and narrow lanes, where a simple carriage accident could be a life-threatening catastrophe. Today, the island is a popular destination for tourists and residents, though the vulnerability of travelers on isolated roads remains a quiet, recurring reality of life in the Pacific Northwest.
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