The Passing of Yakima City’s Founder
Charles Schanno, a pioneer who arrived 23 years ago, dies at 66 leaving a legacy of city-building.
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.
Charles Schanno died at his home in Yakima City on March 9, 1889, at the age of 66. The cause of his death was an abscess of the liver, from which he had been a sufferer for years. Mr. Schanno was born in Alsace and moved to the Yakima country twenty-three years ago. He was the founder of Yakima City and at one time was a very wealthy man but died poor. The funeral was held on Monday under the auspices of the Odd Fellows and was largely attended. Mr. Schanno leaves a wife and ten children to mourn his death.
“He was the founder of Yakima City and at one time was a very wealthy man but died poor.”
Schanno's story of arriving as a pioneer and dying in poverty after building a town is a recurring narrative in the American West, where initial land-based wealth was often volatile and fleeting during the rapid transition to a modern railroad economy.
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