Sixteen-Year-Old Karl Thompson Drowns in Chehalis River
A boat capsizes near an old brewery, leaving a sixteen-year-old boy dead.
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.
On Tuesday evening, as a party of six men were returning from South Aberdeen in a small boat, the boat—when a short distance from Blum's old brewery—got caught in a trough of the sea, filled with water, and swamped. Gilbert, Smith, and Hilligoss, of the party, clung to the boat, and Keegan, Peterson, and Karl Thompson started to the shore. Keegan and Peterson reached the shore in safety, but young Thompson, when only a few rods from shore, sank and was drowned. Thompson had on a pair of gum boots at the time of the accident, and it is thought they prevented him from swimming. A diligent search has been made for the body, but so far without any success. The lad was a bright boy of sixteen years of age, and his parents have the deepest sympathies of all in their sad bereavement.
“Thompson had on a pair of gum boots at the time of the accident, and it is thought they prevented him from swimming.”
The river remains a central, sometimes treacherous, force in Aberdeen life. This account highlights the dangers of early industrial work and travel on the water, long before modern safety protocols for small craft.
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