Tragedy on Lake Union
A well-known mill worker vanishes in a boating accident, leaving behind a legacy as a man of gentle manners.
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.
Yesterday afternoon the body of Samuel Pettingill was found in Lake Union. The Coroner was notified of this fact and the body ordered brought to this city. The facts surrounding the drowning seem to be as follows: Pettingill has for some time past been working for a man who owns a piece of land on Lake Union, and was in the habit of crossing and recrossing the lake in a small boat. He is supposed to have started to cross as usual during Tuesday night, and by some means his frail craft upset and he was drowned. The deceased is well known on the Sound, having lived here a great many years. For a long time he worked as sawyer in the Port Gamble mill. He has held a similar position in the Milton mill and the Western mill at Lake Union. He was about sixty years of age, and has no family in this region. He was a person of gentle manners, and many an old pioneer will regret to learn of the accidental termination of his life.
“He was a person of gentle manners, and many an old pioneer will regret to learn of the accidental termination of his life.”
Lake Union was once the heart of the region's industrial timber life, a place where people lived and worked in temporary structures that have long since been cleared for modern development. Samuel Pettingill's death captures the dangerous, solitary nature of life on the margins of Seattle's early industry.
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