An Embarrassing Resurrection
A logging partner walks into the coroner's office to find his own death certificate being prepared.
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.
Coroner Horton received a letter yesterday from J. H. Monkman, of Hodingsworth, saying that the description of a man killed at the corner of Commercial and King streets tallied with his former logging partner, Dan McKenzie. A time-book leaf with the name 'D.H. McKenzie' was enclosed, and it was concluded the dead man was indeed the partner. A letter was being written at the coroner's office when a man with a red mustache walked in. 'I am Dan McKenzie, the man the Post-Intelligencer says is dead,' he announced. Dr. Horton nearly fell out of his chair. 'I don't know who the dead man is,' said McKenzie. 'I would not like to have my sisters in Boston and friends at Whatcom think I was dead.' The telephone rang, and in a few minutes, the living McKenzie was in the hands of reporters.
“I am Dan McKenzie, the man the Post-Intelligencer says is dead.”
Mistaken identity in an era without digital records could be fatal to a reputation, or in this case, a bizarre clerical error. It serves as a reminder of how quickly someone's life was simplified into an entry in a ledger or a newspaper column.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.