The Mysterious Disappearance of the Grindstone Man
Prominent businessman A. H. Sherwood vanishes from his Seattle quarters, leaving behind a web of property interests and speculative theories.
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.
A. H. Sherwood, who is well known in this city and has considerable property interests in King County, has disappeared. He occupied an office at the Goodale block and used the adjoining room for sleeping, taking his meals at the Club. He was last seen on Monday, July 26, when he took his meals as usual, but he did not occupy his room that night. Sherwood is president and manager of the Sherwood Grindstone Company, which owns a quarry on the Maple Valley branch of the Columbia & Puget Sound railroad. Miss Florence Posey, his bookkeeper, admits it is strange he should be away so long. Some speculate he may have gone to New York to engage in stock exchange speculation, as he had expressed interest in Wall Street. He had a checkered history, having formerly owned a prosperous shoe store in Michigan before moving to Chicago and eventually Seattle, where he found success in the Cedar River valley.
“He had a strong belief that he would be killed by some accident.”
Sherwood’s disappearance captures the volatility of the 1890s Seattle boom, where fortunes in stone and timber were often tied to the personal whims and speculative habits of individual entrepreneurs.
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