A Seattle Domestic’s Sudden Inheritance
A Kansas prosecutor travels to the Pacific Northwest to track down a former domestic worker entitled to a $20,000 estate.
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.
M. A. Gorrill, prosecuting attorney of Douglas County, Kansas, is in Seattle tracing the whereabouts of Miss Alice M. E. Clark, for whom a fortune of nearly $20,000 is waiting. For the past two weeks, he has been tracing the woman, and the trail led to Seattle, where she was last known to be on April 27, 1900. Miss Clark, daughter of a farmer, had a quarrel with her stepmother twelve years ago and left home. Her father prospered and died a year ago, leaving an estate valued at between $30,000 and $40,000. Miss Clark is now about 43 years of age, of Scotch descent, short, stout, and of light complexion. She had been employed as a domestic in Seattle and mentioned an intention to go to Nome, Alaska, for opportunities.
“She had been employed as a domestic across the bay, but had quit and was at that time boarding with a Mrs. Williams.”
This story highlights the transience of workers in the gold-rush era Pacific Northwest, where domestic workers like Alice Clark often disappeared into the anonymity of boom towns like Seattle and Nome, far from their families of origin.
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