The Unsolved Death of Nick Smith
Family and friends believe a man found dead in Everett was drugged, robbed, and murdered, challenging the official reports of a drowning.
John Hemrich, Jr., writes to the Post-Intelligencer that he thinks a dispatch from Everett, published a few days ago, concerning the death of Nick Smith by drowning, is misleading, as it was intimated that Smith was drunk when he fell overboard. My idea is quite different. I think, and his family thinks, that he has been foully dealt with, as Everett is at present a very rough place. He was not the kind of man that was tired of life and would commit suicide, for I have known him and his family for several years. He has always been a hard-working, sober, and industrious man. He hailed from Barnesville, Minn., where now his aged mother lives. Leaving his family here last Saturday to collect some bills at Everett for some outstanding debts, he met his fate. He had $30 in his pocket and some papers, and when found he only had a 10 cent piece. He must have been doped by some miscreant or villain, coaxed out six or seven blocks from Hewitt avenue, sandbagged and robbed and then kicked overboard.
“He must have been doped by some miscreant or villain, coaxed out six or seven blocks from Hewitt avenue, sandbagged and robbed and then kicked overboard.”
This narrative reflects the volatile social conditions of 1890s Everett, a town in its infancy where industrial growth often outpaced civil order. The accusation of being 'sandbagged and robbed' echoes the dark corners of early regional history where laborers were often victims of violent crime.
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