The Disappearing Couple of Victoria
A local belle flees her marriage in a dramatic escape involving salt-stained clothing and a trail leading to Spokane.
Capt. Morgan, of the steamer Evangel, says Arthur Turner and Mrs. Jamison boarded his vessel at Roche Harbor last Friday and were taken to Whatcom. They traveled under the name of J. A. Thornton and wife and confidentially inquired how to reach Spokane without passing through Seattle. Turner exhibited several hundred dollars of Canadian money and changed $100 for American money. He told Morgan they would go to Spokane via the Great Northern. Morgan says their wearing apparel was saturated with salt water and their shoes worn out with tramping over cobblestones. They looked dilapidated and worn out. When they got to Whatcom both purchased new suits. Mrs. Lockland P. Jamison, née Lulu Nelson, was formerly a resident of Port Discovery, where she was married to Jamison eight years ago. Known for her vivacious manners and romantic inclinations, she became the most sought-after belle in the neighborhood before her marriage to a wealthy machinist.
“Their wearing apparel was saturated with salt water and their shoes worn out with tramping over cobblestones. They looked dilapidated and worn out.”
Elopement stories were a staple of the 19th-century press, offering a window into the strict social expectations of marriage and the desperate lengths to which people would go to break them. The obsession with a woman's 'antecedents' and appearance reflects the era's tendency to pathologize independent female behavior.
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