A Romantic Tragedy at the Ravenna Ravine
A couple from Illinois, caught in a horse-drawn carriage accident, met a fatal end in Seattle's wilder outskirts.
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.
Harry M. Smith, a buyer for the Chicago, Burlington and Northern Railway, and Miss Mae B. Taylor, both of Tonica, Illinois, met a tragic end near Seattle on May 7, 1886. While taking a pleasure ride from Ravenna to the city, the horse became frightened by a black stump near the road bank and suddenly backed the carriage off the embankment. The horse, carriage, and both occupants were thrown into the ravine. All were killed. The bodies of the couple were recovered this evening.
“The horse became frightened by a black stump near the road bank and suddenly backed the carriage off the embankment.”
In 1886, Ravenna was a semi-rural area known for its treacherous topography, far removed from the urban density of modern Seattle. This tragedy serves as a grim reminder of how the geography that we now tame for parks and paved roads once posed immediate, life-altering dangers to travelers on the city's periphery.
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