The Brakeman's Fall
A train brakeman sues the Oregon Improvement Company after falling into a pitch-black coal chute at night.
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 $5,000 damage suit of Horace B. Pelham against the Oregon Improvement Company is on trial in Judge Osborn's court. Pelham was head brakeman on one of the Oregon Improvement Company's trains on the evening of January 9, 1893, and was assisting the yardmaster to put the train away. It became dark and he had to get a lantern. He went up onto the defendant's coal bunkers to get one out of the caboose. It was very dark, and as he was going along he stumbled and fell into a coal chute and was injured to a considerable extent. His right leg was sprained and his right groin was also injured. He claims, however, that he has been injured permanently. The defense of the Oregon Improvement Company is that Pelham was running around over the coal bunkers at his own risk and should have been more careful.
“The defense of the Oregon Improvement Company is that Pelham was running around over the coal bunkers at his own risk.”
This reflects the dangerous realities of industrial labor in 1890s Seattle, where lack of worker safety protections was standard. Industrial injury lawsuits were the primary way labor disputes regarding physical safety were mediated in court before robust labor laws existed.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.