A Miner Came West for His Health and Died in a Kennewick Hotel
F. M. Arbogust, a Kellogg miner whose heart had been damaged in a mine accident, hoped Kennewick's mild climate would help. Two weeks later he died at the Commercial Hotel.
F. M. Arbogust, of Kellogg, Idaho, died early Friday morning in his room in the Commercial Hotel. Mr. Arbogust came here about two weeks ago in the hope that his health might be improved by the mild climate and low altitude. He had been ill for about a year with heart trouble which was caused by a mine accident. Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Munger, of Kellogg, and J. C. Carr, of Seattle, relatives, were with him at the time of his death. The body was shipped to Seattle for burial.
“He had been ill for about a year with heart trouble which was caused by a mine accident.”
Before modern occupational safety rules, a mine injury could shadow a worker for the rest of his life, and families often moved in search of a climate that might relieve the damage. Arbogust's death in a Kennewick hotel is a small record of how far people traveled for care — and how little medicine could then offer.
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