Farmer’s Descent Ends in City Jail
After years of heavy drinking, a once-prosperous Walla Walla farmer takes his own life while held in city custody.
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.
Olivet T. Parker, a well-known resident of Walla Walla county, committed suicide this morning in the city jail by taking a quantity of laudanum. Parker was arrested Monday night for being drunk and disorderly and was fined $3 and costs in police court. Not having the money to pay, he was locked up in the city jail. During the night he was very sick, and when Officer Klotz visited the cell at midnight, the officer gave him hot coffee. This morning, when Officer Casey went to the jail to build a fire, he found Parker unresponsive. Dr. Nelms was called, but Parker died shortly after the physician's arrival. An empty bottle with a laudanum label was found by his bed. Parker was once a well-to-do farmer in the Waitsburg section, but after his wife died six years ago, he began drinking heavily and was a frequent visitor to the city jail to sober up.
“For the past three or four months he has been almost living in the saloons in the city.”
This tragedy highlights the historical practice of criminalizing addiction and poverty, where those unable to pay minor fines were held in substandard, unsupervised jail cells. It mirrors modern debates about the adequacy of 'drunk tanks' versus supportive services for residents struggling with substance use and housing instability.
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