The Last Breath of Susie Shouts: A Mother’s Grief in the Garden Lands
In March 1877, just as the Northern Star was extolling the fertile promise of Snohomish’s tide marshes, a local family lost their four-year-old daughter to acute bronchitis at the Riverside Hotel.
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.
At the Riverside Hotel, Snohomish City, March 4th, of Acute Bronchitis, Susie, only child of Edward and Ella Shouts, aged 4 years, 6 months and 7 days.
Though in the cold and silent tomb We lay thy tender form, Thy spirit's in a happy home, Free from grief's bitter storm.
Then sleep, oh sleep, in quiet rest, Although our hearts are riven, We know thou art with the pure and blest "Oh! such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
This obituary captures the fragility of life in 1877 Snohomish, where 'acute bronchitis' was a common killer for young children before antibiotics. It stands in stark contrast to the paper's adjacent articles boasting about the region's economic potential and land reclamation, reminding us that behind every headline about development and growth were families navigating profound personal loss.
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