Tragedy on the Puyallup Line
A logger named T. J. Sullivan was struck and killed by a motor car while sleeping on the tracks near his camp.
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.
T. J. Sullivan, a native of New Brunswick, aged 40, and presumably unmarried, was killed while sleeping on the Puyallup motor line track this morning. He had been foreman of a logging camp at Jeffreys, near Puyallup, and it was near this camp that the motor on rounding a curve came upon him. A whisky bottle was found today where the body lay, so it is thought he was intoxicated. The fact that the whereabouts of his wife is not known leads to the belief that he had none. Two of his brothers reside at Seattle. A bank book showing deposits of $375 was found in his pocket. An inquest was ordered.
“A whisky bottle was found today where the body lay, so it is thought he was intoxicated.”
This report captures the grim reality of life in late 19th-century logging country, where itinerant workers lived and died on the fringes of industrial infrastructure. The mention of the 'motor line' (early interurban rail) points to the rapid transit expansion that connected the valley before modern highways.
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