Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1910 — ROWING PARTY OF STUDENTS DROWN [ARTICLE]

ROWING PARTY OF STUDENTS DROWN

Six Girls and Two Boys of Huntington Lose Lives. PARTY IN TWO ROW BOATS Four Surviyprs Relate Old Story of Boy Who Rocked Boat With Disastrous Result to the Members of the Party. Wilkesbarre, May 13.—Six girls and two boys, members of the graduating and the junior classes at the Huntington Mills high school, five miles from here, were drowned in a mill pond and four other boys managed to reach shore. They were between 15 and 18 years old. ' _ . After lunch a party of the older ones, six boys and six boys, proposed going for a row on the mill pond. They embarked in two boats about 1 o’clock and fifteen minute fterward, eight of them were dead. The dead are: Maud Sutliff, Caroline Koons, Ruth Bonham, Iris Davenport, Kathleen Good, Rachel Thompson. Robert Minny, Ray Dodson. The four survivors, George Dodson, Uriah Weitsel, Jay Koons and Harold Bell, have generally confusted stories to tell. They and the victims had often been out on the mill pond. They went down to the water in couples, and got two small row boats. There was some splashing of water with the oars, some of the party used their hands and threw water on the others. The boats drifted to the middle of the pond and were several yards apart. In one of the boats where the boys and girls were having a very jolly time one of the boys got up to change his seat. The boat rocked somewhat and the girls shrieked; the boy rocked the boat a little more. It dipped some water and the girls, thoroughly alarmed, sprang up and the next Instant the boat overturned and all six were in the water with a chorus of screams for help. The other boat reached the six struggling in the water w’ith no more effort than a half dozen strokes of the oars. Those in the boat were as excited as those in the water. Every one seemed to be screaming or shrieking for help. Those in the boat reached out to get their playmates, those in the water seized the sides of the boat and tried to scramble in. Their weight on the gunwales pulled the boat beneath the water or they upset it while trying to climb in. The four survivors say that then there was overwhelming confusion. All the boys could swim and all apparently made an effort, to save some of the others and each reached the shore after a desperate struggle to save his own life. Apparently there were no cowards, the survivors saved themselves only when it was impossible to save others and saved themselves with an effort.