A Tragic Disappearance at the Occidental Hotel
After arriving in Seattle alone, a young woman known as Nellie McNiel left behind a letter claiming she had been seduced, betrayed, and intended to take her own life.
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.
On Saturday, August 29th, a young woman, probably 20 years of age, came to the Occidental Hotel and registered as Nellie McNiel, Portland, Oregon. She was a very plain, quiet, unassuming person of modest and retiring manner. Nothing was known concerning her except that she told one of the employees that she had been in Providence Hospital as a county charge. She remained at the hotel until last Friday morning. The last seen of her was at breakfast. Friday evening, Thomas Taylor, a ship carpenter who works in A. Allen's shipyard, while returning from his work, noticed some articles lying by the side of the road near the beach. On picking them up, he found a pair of lady's gloves, a key, and a letter. Attached to the key was a note which read as follows: 'The finder will please return this key to the Occidental Hotel.' Mr. Taylor returned the key, and it was identified as the room occupied by Nellie McNiel. Mr. Taylor took the letter home, and opened and read it. The epistle was quite lengthy, written in a rather poor hand, and set forth the following: 'My name is Nellie McNiel. I have always lived an upright, respectable life. I was induced to come to the Sound by Morgan O'Brien, who promised to marry me. I have been seduced and betrayed, and before this letter is found I shall have made way with myself.' No further particulars could be learned, but it is generally supposed that the young lady has committed suicide. Morgan O'Brien lives on White River, and last evening Lyle Stewart started up the river to notify him of what had happened.
“I was induced to come to the Sound by Morgan O'Brien, who promised to marry me. I have been seduced and betrayed.”
The Occidental Hotel was a hub of late 19th-century life in Seattle, standing where the city was still defining its moral and social boundaries. This story of a vulnerable woman fleeing to the city only to find betrayal echoes the high-stakes, often invisible tragedies that still haunt Seattle's transient populations today.
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