Two Men Drown in River Tragedy
A search is underway for two men swept away by the river, marking a somber loss for the Kennewick Valley community.
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.
Henry Thamke and C. Vanier have been swept over the dam and drowned. Friends of the two men are watching the river closely and intend to organize posses to thoroughly search the channel and the flooded lands in the hope that the bodies may not have been carried out into the Columbia. Henry Thamke, a respected local figure, was known all up and down the valley. He had spent the last six years on road work, serving as superintendent of the lower half of the third district. He was a pillar of the community, active in war work and a member of the local Masonic lodge. Vanier, of French descent, had been employed by the Northern Pacific Irrigation Company as a tender of the headgates for nine years. He was known for his warm hospitality to hunters and fishermen who visited his cabin.
“He was of that type of 'hale fellow well met' who makes friends readily and keeps them.”
This tragedy highlights the perennial dangers posed by the Columbia River and the irrigation infrastructure that defined the development of the Tri-Cities. The loss of Thamke, a dedicated public servant, mirrors the way local newspapers historically served as the primary tether for community grieving and public memory in the rural West.
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