A Father Arrested for Burying His Child
A grieving father faces legal trouble for failing to secure a formal burial permit after his two-year-old child passed away.
H. Gentz, a Russian Jew, was arrested by the Health Officer for burying his two-year-old child without a formal permit. Gentz, living in an alley between Third and Fourth streets, had followed his physician's advice and obtained a death certificate, but placed the child in a pine box and buried them in the Jewish cemetery without filing further paperwork. Once the facts were presented in police court, the proceedings were dropped.
“Armed with a physician's certificate of the death, Gentz went to the county clerk's office to inquire what must be done in order to have a legal burial.”
The interaction between a immigrant father navigating local bureaucracy and the swift, rigid application of the law shows the vulnerabilities of marginalized communities in 1890s Seattle.
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