The Strange Disappearance of Nellie McNeil
After a frantic police search, a woman reported missing is discovered living in a rooming house above a local saloon.
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.
The publication of a synopsis of the letter written by Nellie McNeil, which was found in North Seattle by Thos. Taylor, led to the belief that the girl had made away with herself, and a search was instituted by the police. The woods, from the point where the letter, key and gloves were found to Smith's Cove, were scoured without success. Sunday evening, just after dark, Officer Morphy learned that a young woman answering the description, in company with a negro, had taken a room over the Miner's saloon, on Mill street. He gained entrance into the room, and there found the long-lost Nellie. She was not at all communicative, but claimed that the lies set forth in her letter were true, and that she still contemplated suicide. The colored man had rented and paid for the room for two days.
“Officer Morphy gained entrance into the room, and there found the long-lost Nellie.”
This story highlights the sensationalist and moralizing tone of late 19th-century reporting regarding young women in the city. 'Mill Street' is the historic name for what is now the industrial waterfront area of Seattle, near the current Pioneer Square/International District boundary.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.