Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1875 — The Fatal Balloon Voyage — Newton S. Grimwood. [ARTICLE]

The Fatal Balloon Voyage — Newton S. Grimwood.

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 with’ji twenty or thirty miles of Muskegon, a jjd as neither aeronauts nor the balloon had been seen since the impression prev ailed that they had either found a wate** grave in the depths of the treacherous lake or suffered a not less horrible fate by being carried into the wildernessr of Northern Michigan, where they must hav € inevitably perished of starvation. The fueling of regret at their untimely fate w ■as universal, and, though some professed, hope of their ultimate return, the great r majority believed they had miserably peris' fle d. Such was the public feeling on the 16th day of August. On th e afternoon of that day, thirty-three days after the ascension, a telegram was rece pved from Montague, Mich., announcing, the finding of the body of young Grimv /O od on the lake shore, between White!’.all and that place. The discovery was made by a Mr. Beckwith, who carries th a mail between Stony Creek and Montage,e. During his trip along the lake shore Jje noticed a peculiar smell and was attracted by it to look along the beach i’j search of the cause. When he ca’ ji e 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 find 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 identity 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 ou which was engraved the name of N. S. Grimwood, his diary, in which were brief jottings of the incidents of his trip, a numbered ticket to the Chicago Public Library, and other tilings 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 lite-preserver, seemed to indicate that the youngman 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 fouyd 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-afeavc always had a presentiment that some time, fosooner or later, I was bound to rise. There are some people who make sport 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 order.” 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 is scarcely an hour since I struggled into eminence, the restraints of my position are 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 arCover 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, good-na-turea and humorous disposition—often witty, always gentle; and morally, highminded, of noble instincts, the best of habits and above reproach. He was ajnbitious 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 of 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, sadly awaiting the arrival of the body of his mourned son." THE HOUR OF THE DISASTER. . In regard to the time of the fatal accident the Journal of the 20th says: “Iq speeulatingupon the probable time the balloon went into the water, the watch found on the body of Grimwood may furnish very valuable assistance, if indeed the testimony it gives is not almost absolutely conclusiye. Though dumb, it still speaks; and though it has become rusty by lying five weeks in the water and on the shore, still it reveals the secrets of the last fearful hour and the straggle with death, upon which so much has been said and written. It is a small, lady’s gold watqh, and when found the crystal was gond The breaking of the crystal, in all probability, occurred at a period subsequent to its going into the water, and quite likely while the bodv was drifting tow-ard 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 out, the balloon refused longer to carry its load of human freight, and gave 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 deter, mined by it. This question was determined this morning by an examination by Mn J, H. Allison, the experienced watchmaker at the establishment of Matson &

Co. He open ed the wafch, the first time it had been o pened since it was closed by. Grimwood himself in the balloon. The examination revealed that the watch had certainly > o t run more than five hours and twenty rninutes afteh it was wound up. Mr. states, what accords with reason am'i the belief of everyone, that the watch would stop almost instantaneously after j*oing into the water. The cases he sou somewhat loose, which would readily admit the water to the works. Five I jours 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 \yhile 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 confirms the 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 the fury of the blast;”