The Tragic End of a Laborer at Monte Cristo
A hardworking man ends his life in a mining town, leaving behind a brief note and a young family.
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.
Moses La More, a laborer, committed suicide at Monte Cristo on Tuesday by shooting himself through the heart with a revolver. As his wife came into the room, she saw him writing; shortly after she left, she heard the fatal shot. He left a note stating: 'To my dear wife and children: Do not bother about me. Bury me close by. I am no use to you any more.' La More, a native of Michigan who had worked in Seattle and Sedro before moving to Monte Cristo, was described as an intelligent and hardworking young man. He leaves behind a wife and three children, aged two to six.
“Do not bother about me. Bury me close by. I am no use to you any more.”
Monte Cristo was a bustling mining boomtown that promised wealth but often delivered isolation and hardship for workers. This story serves as a somber reminder of the human cost hidden behind the industrial statistics of the Pacific Northwest's extractive history.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.