He Kept a $5,000 Reward Posted for His Missing Wife. Then He Drank Himself to Death.
Christine Nelson stepped into a New York hotel room in October and was never seen again. Her husband spent a fortune and two trips East searching — and died this morning at St. Joseph's.
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.
Grief over the loss of his wife, who mysteriously disappeared in New York six months ago, and despondency over his ineffectual attempts to locate her, were the primary causes of the death today of Andrew P. Nelson, the wealthy ex-switchman. Nelson died unexpectedly at St. Joseph's hospital at 10:30 this morning. Pneumonia brought on by worry and heavy drinking is given as the immediate cause of death by Dr. P. J. Stewart, who attended him.
Nelson's fortune is estimated to be between $20,000 and $40,000. He is known to have spent thousands of dollars within the past few months in a search for his wife, and he has kept a standing reward of $5,000 for information concerning her.
Mrs. Christine Nelson left her home at 1409 Puyallup avenue August 24 last to make a visit with relatives in Denmark. She reached Denmark safely, and returned to New York on October 20 on the Kron Prince liner Cecelia. Mrs. Nelson stopped at a New York hotel the night of October 20, it has been ascertained, but from the time of her entering her room until the present day no trace of her has been found.
Mrs. Nelson was a student of thought transmission, and of several of the higher mysterious sciences. For two weeks after she left Tacoma on her visit Nelson claimed that he could communicate with her with thought messages, but he afterwards said that the thought messages were suddenly broken off, as though some great calamity had occurred.
Since the day of the disappearance Nelson has made two trips East, and made a thorough investigation of facts, engaging attorneys and detectives in all the cities. Later he returned to Tacoma and engaged rooms at the Tourist hotel, where he remained until yesterday, when he was taken ill.
During the three weeks of Nelson's stay at the Tourist he has been apparently trying to drown his sorrow with strong drink. Although seldom out of his mind, employees of the hotel say that he was partly intoxicated during the entire time. His will has not been made public.
“For two weeks after she left Tacoma Nelson claimed that he could communicate with her with thought messages, but he afterwards said that the thought messages were suddenly broken off, as though some great calamity had occurred.”
A man with $40,000 and a standing $5,000 reward still could not find a woman who vanished inside a New York hotel in 1909 — there was no national missing-persons database and no shared hotel registry. The story reads like a modern cold-case podcast, but it is also a portrait of grief and untreated illness in a man everyone described as merely drunk.
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