Tragedy on the Snohomish: A Holiday Mission Ends in the River
A Christmas errand to Seattle turns fatal for a local woman and her companion when their canoe capsized on the Snohomish River.
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.
A sad and melancholy story occurred on the Snohomish River, December 18th. A canoe struck a snag and capsized. In it were Mr. D. O'Neal, Mrs. Walters (a sister), Mr. Peer, and Mrs. M. J. Hilleary. The little party left Snohomish City about noon, and were 12 miles above Snohomish, at a place known as Fiddler's Bluff, when the accident occurred. Mr. Peer and Mrs. Walters were drowned. Mr. O'Neal and Mrs. Hilleary were swept into the swift current and carried some distance down the river. Mrs. Hilleary had been in Seattle all the week, visiting old friends and purchasing Christmas presents for a Sunday school Christmas tree. She had a very pleasant trip and was returning home quite happy. When the canoe sank, Mrs. Hilleary did not know what had happened, but she saw all the parcels and bundles above her and thought a wind was lifting them, instead of which she was in the bottom of the river and the things were floating along on top of the water. She was carried some distance by an undercurrent and caught hold of something she thought was a log, but which proved to be the canoe, upside down. She and Mr. O'Neal drifted near some logs, and he managed to pull her on to one, from which she was rescued, in an almost lifeless condition, by parties who had witnessed the affair, and just in time to prevent drowning. Mrs. Walters' body was recovered on Monday, December 21st. The funeral took place at Snohomish. The body of Mr. Peer has not been found, but a large party is still searching for it. Mrs. Walters leaves three orphan children; Mr. Peer, a wife and four children. Mrs. Hilleary is improving slowly.
“She did not know what had happened, but she saw all the parcels and bundles above her and thought a wind was lifting them, instead of which she was in the bottom of the river.”
The Snohomish River remains a site of both natural beauty and unpredictable danger, much as it was in 1885. Today, urban growth and environmental management have changed the landscape, but the river’s capacity for sudden, tragic upheaval—a constant in the lives of early settlers—remains a haunting reminder of the volatility of life in the Pacific Northwest.
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