The Tragic Accident That Stopped a Clock: The Death of Mr. H. Kelly
A promising builder and father of four dies in a freak hunting accident on the banks of the Snohomish River, leaving his grieving widow to raise their children alone.
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.
SNOHOMISH ACCIDENT.
Mr. H. Kelly, who recently was engaged building Mr. Thompson's house, accidentally shot and killed himself on Saturday, June 16, 1877. Returning from a hunt, he met his wife near the river, when in the act of resting his gun, a double barrel shot gun, landed with butt shut, upon the ground, in a cause unexplained manner the gun was discharged, the shot entering his head, in a mass near one eye, going through the head, and coming out just above the opposite ear. When the smoke cleared away, his dead body lay stretched upon the ground before his wife.
Mr. Kelly leaves a widow and four children to mourn his loss.
This 1877 tragedy highlights the ever-present dangers of frontier life in Snohomish, where logging and hunting were not just industries but daily risks for families. While modern safety regulations have drastically reduced such accidental deaths, the story serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of life in early Washington settlements.
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