Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1875 — The Body of Young Grimwood Found His Sad Fate. [ARTICLE]

The Body of Young Grimwood Found His Sad Fate.

On the 15th day of July last Prof. Donaldson made a balloon ascension from Chicago, accompanied by N. S. Grimwood, a reporter attached to the Chicago Evening Journal. The wind carried them over Lake Michigan, in the direction of Muskegon, Mich., which point, had the current continued in the same direction and of like intensity, they would have reached about two o’clock on the morning of the following day. About midnight a terrible storm arose, and the wind suddenly shifted to an opposite direction. At that time they were thought to be within twenty or thirty miles of Muskegon, and as neither aeronauts nor the balloon had been seen since the impression prevailed that they had either found a watery grave in the depths of the treacherous lake or suffered a not less horrible fate by being carried into the wilderness of Northern Michigan, where they must have inevitably perished of starvation. The feeling of regret at their untimely fate was universal, and, though some professed hope of their ultimate return, the great minority believed they had miserably perished. Such was the public feeling on the 16th day of August. On the afternoon of that day, thirty-three days after ascension, a telegram was received from Montague, Mich., announcing the finding of the body of young Grimwood on the lake shore, between Whitehall and that place. The discovery was made by a Mr. Beckwith, who carries the mail between Stony Creek and Montague. During his trip along the lake shore he noticed a peculiar smell and was attracted by it to look along the beach in search of the cause. When he came up to the body .it was lying on its face and partially covered with sand. Decomposition had already set in, and Mr. Beckwith describes the appearance of the remains as most horrible and offensive. At first Mr. Beckwith thought it might be the body of some sailor who had been washed overboard from some vessel, and which, though a sad event to those related to him, had not a public interest sufficient to require him to try to identify him. He looked again and saw what appeared to be a life-preserv-er, and then, remembering the loss of the aeronauts, he overcame his repugnance and carefully examined the dead. The pockets contained a watch on which was engraved the name of N. 8. Grimwood, his diaiy, in which were brief jottings of the incidents of his trip, a numbered ticket to the Chicago Public Library, and other things which showed conclusively that it was the body of poor Grimwood. It had on a full suit of clothes excepting boots and hat, and the preparations made, by tightly buttoning the coat and putting on the life-preserver, seemed to indicate that the young man had prepared to swim* and might have succeeded in sustaining himself above the surface for some time had the life-preserver been of any use. After being examined the body was buried near where it was found, it being impossible to transport it with the appliances at hand. As soon as the finding of the body was known a search was immediately instituted for traces of Donaldson or the balloon. The shore for several miles was carefully looked over by men in parties and singly, but no other body had yet been found and no trace of the air-bag had been reported up to the evening of the 18th.

A dispatch to the Evening Journal gives the following as a copy of the jottings in Grimwood’s diary: up in a balloon! From the earliest days of childhood I have always had a presentiment that some time, sooner or later, I was bound to rise. There are some people who make 6port of presentiments, but, after all, a presentiment is a handy thing to have around. Where would I have been to-day if I hadn’t had a presentiment? In accordance with my presentiment, I have risen, as it were, to a “point of or--der.” Like a great many politicians, I rise by means of gas. I regret the fact that there are only two of us—Prof. Donaldson and myself—as I would like to belong to the “ upper ten.” Prof. Donaldson seems to be a very pleasant gentleman, although a philosopher and aeronaut. Although it id scarcely an hour since I struggled into eminence, the restraints of my position ate already beginning to be irksome to me and wear upon my spirits. I cannot help reflecting that, if we fall, we fall like Lucifer, out of the heavens, and that upon our arrival upon earth, or, rather, upon water—for we are over the middle of Lake Michigan—we would be literally dead. The Chicago Journal of the 18th says: “ Mr. Grimwood was a young man of more than ordinary promise—physically, stalwart, robust and strong; intellectually, cultured, studious and unobtrusive; socially, of a peculiarly pleasant, gooa-na-tured and humorous disposition—often witty, always gentle; and morally, highminded, of noble instincts, the best of habits and above reproach. He was ambitious of excelling as a practical newspaper man. He became a reporter only as a step-ping-stone to something higher in the journalistic profession, and had he lived he would no doubt have been a successful humorist and essayist in literature. His last words among his assembled associates in the Journal office on the afternoon of the day he ascended in the balloon were jovial, and he was unusually full of good spirits. He was twenty-two years or age in February last, and was engaged to be married to a lady in Lockport, 111. His aged father, Mr. William Grimwood, of Kendall County, 111., is in the city to-day, sadiy awaiting the arrival of the body of his son,”

THE HOUR OF THE DISASTER. In regard to th* time of the fatal accident the Journal of the 20th ways: In speculating upon the probable time the balloon went into the water, the we‘ „ found on the body of Grim”- . '" cn furnish very valuable as* 4 ...ood ms-j, the testimony it pi- if ind^fed lately conclifr* IS hb( almost absospeaks- - TBbugii dtimb; it still b l ' ’ , *»ff tnbiigh it has become rusty V'uyihg five weeks in the Water and on tfife shore, still it feveals the secrets of the iftst fearful houf and the struggle with death* Upon Which so much has teen said and written, it is a small, lady’s gold watch, and when found the crystal was gone. The breaking of the crystal, in , all probability, occurred at a period subsequent to its going into die Water, and quite likely while the body was drifting toward the place where it was found upon the shore. The hands remain undisturbed, and point to twenty minutes past eleven. . Was that the fatal moment when, struck and overcome by the gale, ballast all oat, the balloon refused longer to carry its load of human freight, and Pave them over to a helpless and unequal struggle with the waves ? The Watch was received at this office in exactly the condition it was When taken from the pocket of Grimwood. It is important to know, in order to determine the value of the evidence, whether it was run down, and if it was then but little or nothing is determined by it. This question was determined this morning by ate examination by Mr, J. H. Allison, the experienced watchmaker at the establishment of Matson & Co. He opened tJfe watch, the first time it had been opened sinceft was closed by Grimwood himself in-th# balloon. The examination revealed that the watch had certainly not run more than five hours and twenty minutes after it was woundup. Mr. Allison states, what accords with reason and the belief of everyone, that Die watch would stop almost instantaneously after goinginto the water. The cases he found somewhat loose, which would readily admit the water to the works. Five hours and twenty minutes before it stopped would be six o’clock, the time when it must have been wound up. The time when the balloon went up, as observed by a Journal man, was eleven minutes to five. So the watch must have been wound while they were in the clouds. The time indicated by the watch corresponds to the time they would meet the squall. The gale that night is a known fact. The testimony of the watch conflrmsthe theory of the disaster generally accepted by the people, which is, discarding all far-fetched and fine-spun theories, that the balloon and its passengers were swept into the lake before tie fUry of the blast.”