A Sudden Fortune for a Tacoma Nurse
A local nurse living on South Warner Street inherits a $110,000 fortune from a long-lost uncle in California.
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.
Through the unexpected will of a long-forgotten great uncle, Mrs. Minnie Bogardus, nee Kenston, until today a nurse at the home of George Harris, 6015 South Warner street, has suddenly come into possession of a fortune amounting to $110,000. Her uncle, Edwin Brown, a bachelor and extensive vineyard grower of Los Angeles, died recently in California, and until yesterday his attorneys had made an almost fruitless search for Mrs. Bogardus, the only heir. Mrs. Bogardus will leave Monday for the South, where the property will be turned over to her.
“Mrs. Bogardus... had no hope or idea that she would fall heir to the fortune after his death.”
A windfall inheritance of $110,000 in 1909 (equivalent to millions today) completely transformed the life of a working-class nurse. It is a striking reminder of how wealth inequality and sudden transfers of capital have historically defined the economic landscape of Tacoma's residential neighborhoods.
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