Tragedy at the Spring: A Mother’s Drowning in Cathlamet
A logger returns home after a week of work to find his wife dead in a two-foot deep spring and his three children alone in the snow.
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 Cardinell, a logger residing seven miles from Cathlamet, returns home every Saturday after a week in the woods. Last Monday afternoon, his wife went to draw water from a spring that was only two feet deep, but fell in head-first and drowned. The couple's three children, the oldest being only nine, attempted to pull her out but were unable to move her. The children remained at the house and tried to survive until the father's return. When Cardinell finally came home on Saturday, he discovered the body of his wife still in the spring. The children had attempted to trek to Cathlamet for help, but were blocked by deep, impassable snow.
“Her three children, the oldest only 9 years of age, attempted to pull her out, but could not.”
This tragic story underscores the extreme isolation faced by families in the logging camps of the Pacific Northwest during the late 19th century. The harrowing image of the children left to fend for themselves in the winter snow remains a stark reminder of the risks of frontier life.
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