Buttles, Grace E. (Roberts) & son Robert died 1901

BUTTLES, ROBERTS, STRANK

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 8/5/2021 at 20:31:25

Our Strawberry Point correspondence gives the sad story of the misfortune that has come into the life of Cephas Buttles, of Milwaukee, in the drowning of his wife and little son. She was formerly Grace Roberts of Strawberry Point.

~The Register, Thursday evening, Oct. 31, 1901 (Local News column)

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Grace Elizabeth Buttles
Seldom is a community so shocked as were the residents of our little city last Thursday morning when the sad message came over the wires that Mrs. Grace Buttles (nee Grace Roberts), and her little five year old son, Robert were dead.

Mr. Chas. Roberts, a brother, had been summoned to Milwaukee the day before, a message telling him that his sister and little son were missing from their home. At the time of the terrible calamity Mr. Buttles was in Michigan attending to business matters, leaving an experienced attendant to care for his wife.

On Monday afternoon Mrs. Buttles and her little son wandered from their home, and were not found until Thursday morning, about 12:50 o'clock, when their lifeless bodies were taken from a pool in the Milwaukee river about three miles from the city limits.

Grace Elizabeth Rogers was born at Strawberry Point, Iowa, August 5, 1866, and was at the time of her death a few months past thirty-five years of age. Mrs. Buttles childhood and girlhood days were spent in this city, where she grew to beautiful womanhood, loved and highly respected by all. She was married to Cephas Buttles at her home in this city, about eleven years ago, where they resided until the spring of 1898 when they removed to Milwaukee which has been their home since that time.

Little Robert, the son, was born in Strawberry Point, May 14, 1896, and was only a few months past five years of age. He was a bright winsome little fellow, the pride of his fond parents and the pet of all who knew him.

The funeral services for the mother and son were held at their late home in Milwaukee, on Friday last, and it was, indeed, a sad and pitiful one. None know the sorrow of the husband and relatives who are so terribly and suddenly bereft, and can only extend their heartfelt sympathy to those who are left to mourn.

The following account of the sad tragedy is taken from 'The Evening Wisconsin', published at Milwaukee:

"At 12:50 o'clock this morning the bodies of Mrs. Cephas Buttles and her son, Robert, were recovered from a pool in the Milwaukee river, and the weary search, extending over a period of three days, was broght to an end.

Mrs. Buttles clasped the body of her little son in her arms and both were covered with water less than three feet in depth. They had died together, the mother no doubt deliberately throwing herself into the water and holding her boy tightly to her breast. The pool is about three miles north of the city in the town of Milwaukee. The heart-broken husband and father was in the searching party and the bodies were laid at his feet.

A party of Masons had heard of the finding of a definite clue - a woman's hat and a boa that corresponded with the description given of Mrs. Buttles clothing - and it was decided to join in the search immediately. Mr. Buttles and his friends were prepared for the worst on receipt of the news that the hat and boa had been found near the river, but as the searching party knelt by the side of the two bodies and prayed no amount of fortitude could withstand the pathos of the scene.

At the cement mills a tramp - Herman Heming by name - was found asleep in a box car. It was he who had first found the hat and boa, and he gave them to some boys he saw in the neighborhood.

A dog accompanied one of the searchers and it was through his sniffing the ground and wading into the water that it became evident that the bodies of Mrs. Buttles and her son were there. The Tramp volunteered to wade in and through the water was icy cold he did not waver. The first pool gave forth nothing, but from the second he bro't up the two bodies clasped in each others arms.

Mr. Buttles grief was pitiable to behold. Hearts were bursting with compassion for the stricken man and when he asked for prayer every person in the party knelt while the Lord's prayer was repeated.

While from the moment of Mrs. Buttles disappearance there was a terrible dread that the demented woman might end her life and the life of her boy, there was always a hope that she might manage to maintain herself until she could be found. Three years ago she wandered away and was absent three days before she was found, and it was not until her body was drawn from the pool that all hope was given up.

Mrs. Buttles objected to the presence of an attendant. She believed she was being persecuted, and it is thought she purposely strayed away when her attendant's back was turned. She no doubt made towards the town of Milwaukee without intending to end her life until after aimlessly and wearily wandering, with starvation almost certain, she chose relief from it all in the pool."

~Strawberry Point Mail Press, Thursday, October 31, 1901

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Note: Mrs Buttles and her son Robert are buried in Forest Home cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The May 1889 marriage record of Cephas & Grace gives her parents as Charles Roberts & Helen Strank. Interestingly, his gravestone in Forest Home cemetery appears to be engraved "Mother" on the top!