A Desperate Swim in the Palouse
After losing his land and descending into a alcoholic crisis, a former farmer experiences a terrifying delusion and is rescued from the river.
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.
Spencer Gragg, a well-known and former well-to-do farmer near Garfield, is at St. Ignatius hospital being nursed through a severe attack of delirium tremens. Two or three months ago, he sold 80 acres of land for $2,700 and has since been dissipating deeply. For the past month, he has been about Colfax drinking heavily and a few days ago fell in a fit on the street. He was nursed through this and left the city suffering from delirium tremens. Thursday evening, he reached Elberton and during the night, under the delusion that the members of the Red Men lodge wanted his life and were hemming him in, swam the Palouse river. Arriving on the opposite bank, his enemies still confronted him and he swam back again, finally jumping a picket fence and escaping. He was found the next morning wandering along the river bank thoroughly soaked and almost chilled to death. He was brought to the sheriff's office Friday by Superintendent Colfin of the poor farm and taken to the hospital.
“Under the delusion that the members of the Red Men lodge wanted his life and were hemming him in, swam the Palouse river.”
This account captures the harsh reality of rural life and the lack of social safety nets for those struggling with mental health and addiction in the late 19th century. Today, similar accounts are treated with greater emphasis on medical intervention rather than the stigmatizing prose of the period.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.