The Last Letter From Everett: A Young Printer Vanishes on the Road to Spokane
Elmer H. Rogers told his parents he was headed for Spokane. He never arrived, and his family feared he was killed trying to ride the rails between Seattle and the inland city.
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.
Elmer H. Rogers, a young man about 21 years of age, disappeared from this city on or about June 25, 1897, and all efforts of his parents, who reside at Eugene, Or., to ascertain his whereabouts or what has become of him have so far been fruitless. The missing young man is well known in Eugene, where he worked for a number of years as a printer. About two years ago he went to Portland and learned stenography and typewriting, and later worked as a typewriter and stenographer for a commission house in Portland. In the fall of 1896 he returned to Eugene and passed the winter with his parents. In March, 1897, he returned to Portland, where he worked about a month, when he was thrown out of employment, and then went to the Puget Sound country. He worked for a time on a newspaper at Everett, Wash. He was very thoughtful of his parents, and always wrote letters home every week telling them how he was getting along. The last letter they received was from Everett, and was dated June 15, 1897. That is the last trace the parents have of the boy except the one fact that on June 25, 1897, he called at the postoffice in Seattle and ordered his mail sent to Spokane, Wash., showing that he intended to go to Spokane.
Diligent search in the vicinity of Spokane shows that he never reached Spokane and his parents are of the opinion that the boy was killed while trying to beat some train between Seattle and Spokane.
Elmer H. Rogers is 21 years of age, tall, slender build, being slightly over six feet in height, is smooth shaven, or if he had any whiskers they are very light, and his face is slightly freckled, with straight-cut features and rather long, straight nose. He was probably wearing a black suit of clothes and a slouch hat. He is polite and affable in his disposition, sober and industrious and has a good education, being a professional printer and also a good stenographer and typewriter.
His mother, who lives in Eugene, is in poor health and is completely prostrated with grief over the loss of her son. Anyone knowing any clue to his whereabouts or as to what has become of him will confer a great favor by addressing A. Rogers, Eugene, Or.
“His mother, who lives in Eugene, is in poor health and is completely prostrated with grief over the loss of her son.”
Before national missing-person databases or social media, a family's best tool was a newspaper notice and a postal forwarding address. Rogers's case shows how easily a young worker could vanish along the region's rail corridors, and how much depended on strangers reading the want columns.
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