Mill Tragedy in Cosmopolis
A local worker faces permanent injury after a horrific accident at the saw.
Tuesday, John Pulver, while working at the edger in the Cosmopolis mill, got his right hand caught in the saw and mangled it terribly. He was at once brought here on the steamer Alert and taken to the hospital, where it was found necessary to amputate the arm about four inches above the wrist. Pulver is a man of family, about forty years of age, and has already had one serious accident, that made him lame, so that the present one makes it unusually hard for him.
“The present one makes it unusually hard for him.”
This incident highlights the brutal reality of the timber industry in 1890s Aberdeen, where safety standards were non-existent and a single workplace accident could destitutionize an entire family. Today, the legacies of these 'sawmill towns' are visible in the redeveloped waterfronts that have long since replaced the era of industrial maiming.
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