Two Children Die After Eating Poisonous Wild Parsnips
A tragic afternoon playing by a creek near Riverside leads to the fatal consumption of wild vegetation.
Mary, the 6-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, and Billy, 6-year-old son of Mrs. John Wise, all of Riverside, are dead from eating wild parsnips. The children were playing along a creek near their home when they pulled up and ate the plants. They returned home around noon and died within an hour.
“The children were playing along a creek near their home, and on finding the parsnips pulled them up and ate them.”
Then · 1924102 years apartNow · 2026
Accidental plant poisoning remains a risk in rural Washington, underscoring the necessity of environmental education for children in areas where dangerous native flora like water hemlock (often mistaken for parsnip) grows wild.
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