Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1879 — Boy Heroes. [ARTICLE]

Boy Heroes.

[From the Terre Haute (Ind.) Express.; Charles Gibbs, his brother Ed, and George Rouse, all colored boys about 12 years of age, were taking a bath in the Wabash river. Suddenly Ed Gibbs and George Rouse got beyond their depth and were unable to swim, when Charles went to their assistance and succeeded in saving them both. He was so exhausted that he sank and was swept down stream, drowning before he could be rescued— a sad ending to a brave boy. [From the Pekin (Ill.) Republican.J A coal shaft is being sunk j ust north of Hollis, and the other day a workman by the name of Harland lighted a slow match leading to a blast and then signaled to be drawn up. The depth of the shaft was seventy feet. When he had been raised forty feet he struck the bottom of a board partition and was thrown back to the bottom. Thomas Crandall, a stepson of Harland, was a witness to the accident, and promptly slid down the rope, seventy feet, and tore the match from the fuse in time to prevent an explosion. The act was a brave one, scarcely to be paralleled. The boy’s hands were terribly lacerated by the friction of the rope. The stepfather was rescued with a broken rib and other severe bruises.