A Potter's Field Grave and a Countrymen's Tombstone
After a Japanese laborer died alone in a West Seattle shack, fellow immigrants considered marking his county grave.
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 Japanese man named Jinter said last night that the death of Charley Matsu, the Japanese who died of consumption in his shack in West Seattle on Wednesday, was not generally known among his countrymen until after he had been buried in the potter's field at the expense of the county. He was going to bring the matter up in their society, which is known as the Seinen-kai, and see if something could be done to procure a tombstone to mark the grave, if nothing more. He added that the Japanese have not much money now on account of the general dullness of the times, but they can always spare a little for an act of kindness to one of their countrymen.
“The Japanese have not much money now on account of the general dullness of the times, but they can always spare a little for an act of kindness to one of their countrymen.”
Charley Matsu's burial in the county potter's field reflects how immigrant laborers could die with little notice in 1890s Seattle. The proposed tombstone was a small act of community care, the kind of mutual aid that often stood in for public welfare—and it still echoes in how immigrant communities today honor members lost at the margins.
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