Tragedy at the Border
A report from the boundary between Washington Territory and British Columbia details a fatal accident and a local economic failure.
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.
James H. Beitzel, the recently appointed mounted inspector of Customs at Osooyoos, near the boundary line between Washington Territory and British Columbia, in a private letter to a friend says: 'I arrived at Osooyoos after a three days' ride from Colville. I left my father on the farm. He is now happy. On my arrival at Osooyoos I learned that a merchant named Robert had failed for $10,000. He had been in business for about eight months. Here, at Osooyoos, a man named James Williams, a native of England, working for J. C. Haines, the British Customs Collector, on the 18th of May, while driving a team across the ford below the bridge, a place he had crossed hundreds of times before, got into deep water and drowned himself and the team. It is supposed he was under the influence of liquor. No one missed him for several hours, when he was found in the lake, alongside of the wagon, he not having made a struggle to save himself, as he was not over six feet from shallow water. The horses were tangled in the harness. It has been very warm here and dry, the thermometer registering as high as 80 degrees in the shade, and if we do not have rain we will have short crops.'
“he not having made a struggle to save himself, as he was not over six feet from shallow water.”
Osoyoos remains a vital border crossing, though it is now primarily known for its wine country rather than the rugged, isolated frontier conditions described here. The tragedy of the drowned teamster highlights the precariousness of life in the pre-automotive era, where a small mistake near a river could be fatal.
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