The Tragedy of a Young Belgian Immigrant
After four years building a life in Kennewick, a local slaughterhouse foreman dies of typhoid, leaving behind a young family.
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.
Peter Lagae, who has followed the business of stock buyer in this city for four years, died at his home at 5:20 o’clock last Friday evening, death following a six-weeks’ illness of typhoid fever. Funeral services were conducted in the Catholic church at two o’clock Sunday afternoon by Father Flavin, interment was in the city cemetery. Mr. Lagae was born in Belgium 32 years ago and had made his home in this country about nine years. He leaves a widow and two small children, who will continue to make their home in Kennewick. Mr. Lagae was an enterprising, hard-working and frugal young man and enjoyed the respect and esteem of all those in the community who knew him. At the time he was taken ill he was employed as stock buyer and slaughter house foreman for Dircksen’s Market.
“Mr. Lagae was an enterprising, hard-working and frugal young man and enjoyed the respect and esteem of all those in the community who knew him.”
Typhoid fever was a constant, terrifying threat to the infrastructure of early 20th-century Washington towns, often linked to the rapid expansion of water and sewer systems. This account captures the human cost of the era's sanitation gaps, leaving a family to navigate life in a new country without their primary provider.
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