Tragedy at Samamish Slough
A mother’s desperate attempt to save her child ends in a heartbreaking loss.
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.
We made mention, the other day, of the drowning of Arthur Day, in Samamish Slough. Further particulars have since come to hand. Mrs. Day and her little son were in a boat February 1st, intending to cross the slough. The weather was quite pleasant, and the child laughed on the way. Mrs. Day was not very expert in handling the boat, and in some manner it overturned and both were plunged into deep, cold water. The mother, though exhausted, made a desperate effort to get to the boy, but the current seemed to separate them, and with the cry, 'O, mamma!' her only child, her baby, sank and was drowned. Mrs. Day was found an hour later in a state of prostration.
“The mother, though exhausted, made a desperate effort to get to the boy, but the current seemed to separate them, and with the cry, 'O, mamma!' her only child, her baby, sank and was drowned.”
This reflects the dangers of navigating the untamed waterways of the region in the 1880s. The Samamish Slough, once a primary thoroughfare for settlers, was a place of frequent industrial and personal tragedy.
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