The Stranger in the Haymow
A lonely death on a Lind farm leaves behind few clues and a question of identity.
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 telegram received by Prosecuting Attorney Holcomb last Wednesday morning contained the startling words, 'Dead man found in my barn.' The dispatch came from James Neilson in Lind. A coroner's jury was convened at the scene. Witnesses testified the man had been in Lind the previous Friday, complaining of illness, and was last seen by coal heavers at the N.P. railway yards. He was discovered by Dugal Neilson in his haymow. The remains were of a man about 48 years old, 120 pounds, with a brown mustache. The only effects found on the body were a razor, a strap and brush, a toothbrush, newspaper clippings, and a scrap of paper marked 'Laundry' and the name 'W. McFee.' The jury concluded the man died of natural causes.
“The only effects found on the body were a razor, a strap and brush, tooth brush, some clippings from a newspaper and a scrap of wrapping paper with the word 'Laundry' and the name 'W. McFee.'”
This account captures the grim reality of transient labor and the itinerant workers who built the inland empire, often passing through towns anonymously. It highlights a common historical experience of the 'unidentified dead' in remote agricultural regions, a stark reminder of the human cost of rapid western expansion.
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