The Price of Progress: A Victim of the Storm
A devastating windstorm hits Olympia, leaving a man critically injured and highlighting the physical perils of frontier expansion.
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.
General Legitime, ex-president of Hayti, arrived in New York with his wife, children and suite and went to Hotel Martin at University place and Ninth street. He spoke only French, appeared dignified, and said he had not been forced to leave Hayti; he had chosen to go rather than prolong bloodshed, and there had been no surrender or treaty with Hyppolite. He denied any truth in rumors connecting him with a plot against General Telemaque, saying he knew nothing of the death until after it happened and had not favored assassination.
General Carrie, a member of the suite, said losses of life and property during the war must have been great and that the wounded suffered because facilities for their care were poor. He did not think the persons or property of foreigners in Hayti were in danger, and said he expected Hyppolite to respect the law and customs of the country. Legitime gave the island's population as about 1,200,000.
Legitime said he would settle for the present near Paris and had no further plans. Members of the party were poorly clad, most had neither jewels nor watches, and their baggage was small, indicating they had few possessions. The party expected to leave the next morning for France.
“E. O. Robbins, of Olympia, was dangerously injured on the head and shoulder by a tree blown down by the wind storm.”
While tree-related injuries during storms remain a common hazard in Pacific Northwest winters, this brief report from 1889 serves as a reminder of how vulnerable early settlement infrastructure was to the region's climate. Today, urban forestry and city planning struggle with these same environmental forces as Seattle's canopy continues to battle development and climate change.
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