The Unsolved Murder of Johnny Seymour
A well-known farmer found dead on a roadside following a Fourth of July outing raises suspicions of foul play and potential arrests in the Colville area.
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.
Colville, July 11.—Sheriff Frank Ferguson and Prosecuting Attorney H. G. Kirkpatrick were called to Marcus to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Johnny Seymour, an Indian, who owned a valuable farm near the Little Mission, six miles north of Bossburg. Seymour came to Marcus on Friday to celebrate the Fourth. In the afternoon, he left town with a white man for the purpose of visiting the family of George Felix, who lives less than a mile out of Marcus. After leaving the Felix ranch, he was seen the next day lying alongside the road a short distance from the Felix residence. People who went by, believing him to be drunk, took no notice. Sunday evening, a wayfarer who passed that way took the trouble to investigate and found that Seymour had been beaten over the head and had died from the effects of a broken skull. Seymour was a man of middle age and rather frugal habits, and considered well-off, as the saying goes among the tribes across the river. The white man, who is only a recent arrival, is still in Marcus as a witness before the coroner's inquest now in progress. There will be some interesting developments before the inquest is concluded, and the arrest of at least two and possibly more parties is looked for.
“People who went by, believing him to be drunk, took no notice.”
The death of Johnny Seymour, occurring amid the celebrations of the Fourth of July, highlights the dangerous vulnerability of Indigenous landowners during a time of rapid settler expansion. His mistreatment by passersby—who assumed his prone body was merely the result of intoxication—mirrors the systemic indifference that has long clouded investigations into violence against Indigenous people.
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