A Young Student's Tragic End
A popular Walla Walla High School student succumbs to internal injuries after a horse riding accident north of town.
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.
After 30 hours of intense suffering, Ray Estes, who was so badly injured 14 miles north of Walla Walla Tuesday afternoon by his horse stumbling and falling on him, died at 2 o'clock this morning at St. Mary's hospital. Mrs. Estes, mother of the young man, is prostrated over his death, he being her favorite son. After the first examination his physicians said he was fatally hurt, and, aside from administering opiates to relieve the intense suffering, nothing could be done to save him. The remains were transferred to the Cookerly undertaking parlors this morning to be prepared for burial, and later were taken to the family residence at the corner of Jones and Fourth Streets. Just how the fatal accident occurred the young man was not able to explain. It is supposed that in riding into the bunch of horses he was driving, his horse stepped into a hole and fell on him. The deceased was a popular student in the Walla Walla high school and his tragic and sudden death has cast a gloom over his schoolmates.
“The deceased was a popular student in the Walla Walla high school and his tragic and sudden death has cast a gloom over his schoolmates.”
Accidents involving agricultural work and livestock were a common cause of death in the rural West at the turn of the century. While the landscape of Walla Walla has shifted from agricultural drives to suburban and commercial development, the deep local impact of sudden, tragic loss in a tight-knit school community remains a timeless and resonant theme.
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