The Brewery Worker Who Dreamed of Marrying Bismarck’s Daughter
Known only as “Bismarck,” a Bay View brewery employee was found drowned at the mouth of the Duwamish—still chasing a delusion that he was bound for Germany and an imperial marriage.
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 body of a man known as “Bismarck,” an employee at the Bay View Brewery, who had been missing for two days, was found on a sand bar at the mouth of the Duwamish River yesterday afternoon at 1 o’clock. He was face down and dressed in blue jeans with dark coat and vest. In his pockets were 30 cents, a jackknife and a cartridge extractor. He was five feet seven inches tall, weighed 160 pounds and had full brown beard and hair. His shoes were coarse and had buckles. The last that was seen of “Bismarck” was on Commercial Street, when he was intoxicated and laboring under the delusion that he was going to Germany to marry Prince Bismarck’s daughter and thus become heir to a large estate. His remains were taken to Bonney & Stewart’s. Coroner Horton signed the death certificate as accidental drowning.
“He was laboring under the delusion that he was going to Germany to marry Prince Bismarck’s daughter and thus become heir to a large estate.”
The Duwamish river mouth and Commercial Street belonged to the working waterfront of 1890s Seattle, where immigrant and itinerant laborers lived close to the tides. “Bismarck” left almost no record beyond this clipping—an eccentric local figure whose death was catalogued by his clothes and pocket change.
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