Unidentified Remains Found in the Duwamish River
A body discovered near the race track prompts a grim discovery and a hasty burial at the county farm.
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.
The body of a man so badly decomposed as to be absolutely unrecognizable was found floating in the Duwamish River opposite the race track at about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon by an employee of a shingle mill. The corpse was drawn ashore and Coroner Horton summoned. After an examination, the coroner decided to hold no inquest. The body was taken to the county farm and, unless identified, will be buried there today. The man was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, 165 pounds, wearing a dark brown coat, striped trousers, and a blue silk Windsor tie. In his pockets were an old razor and a purse filled with buttons and needles. The coroner estimates the body had been in the water for at least three months, but knows of no recent missing persons reports that match the description.
“There was nothing about the clothes or in the pockets to identify the man, and he will in all probability be forever unidentified.”
Found in the industrial heart of the Duwamish, this tragedy reflects the transient nature of labor and the often anonymous fates of those who lived on the margins of 1890s Seattle. The 'county farm' burial was the standard, final indignity for the unidentified in a growing city.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.