A Night Watchman's Final Request
A Port Madison worker predicts his own death and seeks to settle his affairs in a haunting, sudden passing.
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.
Frank Bidell, for several years night watchman at Port Madison, died at Port Madison Friday last under very peculiar circumstances. During the afternoon, he sent for Mr. Bucklin, foreman in the mill. Bidell looked up and said: 'Mr. Bucklin, I'm going to die, and I thought I'd ask you to fix up a little statement for me. I have $700 or $800 which I wish to leave to some friends.' Mr. Bucklin thought the man probably had the blues, and promised to come back in the evening. At eight o'clock, he went around to see if Bidell had recovered, but on entering the cabin found Bidell lying on his bunk dead. It seems that he had been feeling badly for several days, and on Friday realized that his life was drawing to a close.
“Mr. Bucklin, I'm going to die, and I thought I'd ask you to fix up a little statement for me.”
This story highlights the precariousness of labor in 1880s mill towns, where one's life was often lived in a company cabin and death was a private, sudden occurrence for the isolated worker. It serves as a stark reminder of the human cost hidden within the era's industrial growth.
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