Tragedy in the Stetson-Post Row
Three travelers en route to Snohomish perished in a fire, their bodies found huddled together in an attempted escape.
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.
A ghastly discovery was made about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon by Chief Kellogg and Assistant Chief Bosler: three bodies in the ruins of Friday night's fire. While passing along the back porch of the Stetson-Post row, they came to a room over the restaurant where they found three bodies, terribly burned and disfigured beyond recognition. The bodies were lying in a row with their heads to the south and were apparently those of a woman and two men. By the body of the third person was found a .32-calibre Hopkins Allen revolver, a notebook, remnants of a pocket-book, $1.80 in silver and a Seattle Transfer company’s check. The check identified the parties as Mr. and Mrs. Mayes and a Mr. Jones, who had arrived from Arkansas bound for Marysville, Snohomish county, where Mayes was to work as a cook. B. W. Davis, builder of the Stetson-Post block, took measurements and found the bodies were in the court, the people having apparently made an attempt to escape by jumping through a window. It appears they were overcome by smoke before they could reach safety. The bodies were placed in separate caskets by Bonney Stewart and funeral services were held by Rev. Damon before interment in the Masonic cemetery.
“The woman and one of the men had apparently died in each others arms, while the third was about three feet to the west, face downward.”
The Stetson-Post building fire was a grim landmark in Seattle's early growth, illustrating the dangers of rapid urban density without adequate safety codes. Today, such high-density living situations are scrutinized by modern fire marshals, but the human cost of temporary or affordable housing remains a recurring theme in the Pacific Northwest.
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