James Dwight Lamb 1871-1905

LAMB, ANKENY, GATES, MCCOY

Posted By: Michael J. Kearney (email)
Date: 12/31/2002 at 09:57:25

The Clinton Daily Herald May 13, 1905 A wave of suppressed horror swept over the entire city last evening when the first news reached here of the drowning off the cruiser Margaret of James Dwight Lamb. Although the details of the disaster did not reach Clinton until some hours after the casualty, the news traveled from one end of the city to the other with incredible swiftness. Mr. Lamb had joined the party taken out by John H. Bradley of Dubuque in his new boat which had just been turned out from the docks of the Lamb Boat and Engine Works, a finished product. A detailed description of the craft, of which the makers were pardonable proud appeared in the Herald of Friday's issue. J.F. Pethybridge, who was on the board and one of the witnesses to the tragedy, says that the accident occurred while the boat was running northward about five and one half miles south of Bellevue. The particular spot is nearly a mile north of the mouth of the Maquoketa river and at the second signal light north of Sun Prairie. Mr. Lamb had been piloting the boat all the afternoon, the Margaret having left Clinton at 9 o'clock in the morning and stopping at Sabula for dinner. It was about half past four o'clock. He had given the wheel on the upper deck over to his pilot, Clyde Welch, the regular man who goes with him on his trial cruises. Mr. Lamb descended to the lower deck for just a minute or two, returned to the upper pilot house and asked the pilot which point he steered for at that place. The pilot showed him, and he responded that he steered for the same place. He then picked up an armed camp chair which was placed near the wheel and walked to one side evidently intending to sit near the railing. The chair must have tipped when he attempted to sit in it, for the pilot thought he heard him say "Clyde, I am going," he turned and Mr. Lamb was out of sight. The boat was immediately reversed, put about and Mr. Lamb was seen to rise for a second only at the surface of the water, lying on one side and partly out of the water. The chair floated not far away form him, but he was fully 100 feet away from the boat which had been going up stream at a rapid rate, while the force of the rapid current had carried him down stream. For some little time the watchers looked about and then started for Bellevue where every boat and clamdigger available were sent back to continue the search. The men dragged the river at this point and below until two o'clock this morning, when darkness put a stop to their operations. At daybreak work was resumed. The rivermen at Bellevue are confident that they will find the body which was lost in a depth of about twenty-five feet of water, and about a mile below there is a pocket over forty feet deep, which they will search. The Artemus Gates left Clinton at 8 o'clock last evening and reached the scene of the disaster about midnight. Then the Chaperon and Summer Girl appeared on the scene and their crew was added to the searching force. This morning the Gates returned to Clinton at an early hour, bringing the Summer Girl, leaving the Chaperon below Bellevue. Garrett Lamb, who had started for the northwest, was recalled and came down on a special from north of Minneapolis, returning via the river to the other boats of the fleet. Lafayette Lamb, who had started with him, also returned to the city. James Dwight Lamb was born in the city of Clinton June 25, 1871, and was the second son of the late Artemus Lamb and a grandson of Chancy Lamb, deceased, who was the founder of the firm of C. Lamb & Sons, one of the largest lumber milling firms in the Mississippi valley and which made the name of Clinton widely known. As he was familiarly known, Dwight Lamb attended school at Exeter, N.H., and later at Orchard Lake, Mich. His tastes were for an active business career and while still a young man his father gave him a position in the office of Mill D, the Chancy Mill of the firm of C. Lamb & Sons. Mr. Lamb learned the business thoroughly and in a few years became manager of this branch of the business retaining this active control until the close of the mill. Meanwhile he had become interested in machinery. Mechanism was not only his hobby but became his absorbing passion. Beginning with an interest in the Clinton Separator Works, he developed the business until it grew into the Lamb Boat and Engine company of which he was president and promoter. The business of this firm has traveled far and wide; branch offices have been established in Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and New York City and through them the Lamb engines and his latest model the torpedo stern launch and cruisers have been sold in many states in the Union. With the advent of automobiles, he took up this branch of mechanism establishing the first and only garage conducted in the city and in this portion of the state. The winter just passed saw the incorporation of the Lamb Automobile Company with J.D. Lamb as president and the building of a handsome permanent building for a garage and repair shop. There were other interests in the city with which he was more or less actively identified. These interests include a directorship in the Peoples Trust and Savings bank, a directorship in the City National bank, also in the I. & I. railway, of which he was treasurer, and interest in the Clinton theatre and an interest in the Cromwell Hotel company. In social and lodge circles Mr. Lamb was a member of the Wapsipinicon club and a 32nd degree Mason, belonging t the Blue Lodge, the Royal Arch chapter, the Knights Templar, the DeMolay consistory and also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He was in addition a charter member of the B.P.O.E. On the fifth day of October 1892, J.D. Lamb was married to Miss Mollie Ankeny and a descendent of two of the first families of the state. To them have been born three children, Celeste, Valeria and Artemus, and this little heir of less than four months of age is the only male minor of the name of Lamb. The home life of this practical millionaire was one of great happiness. Within the last decade a beautiful residence on the wooded heights west of the city had been prepared for them, and at Woodlands was an ideal home. To this home has come a sorrow crushing and overwhelming. Of the family of Artemus Lamb, there are now left his widow, one son, Garrett E. Lamb and two daughters, Mrs. Marvin J. Gates and Mrs. Russell B. McCoy. To them all the silent sympathy of the entire community has gone out in this terrible and crushing bereavement. Throughout this city today there are none but expressions of sorrow and sincere regret at the untimely taking from its midst of one of its sterling citizens. J.D. Lamb was a man whose personality made itself felt. He was a rich man, but not one of the idle rich, his wealth was turned to good account. He was a manufacturer, an interested citizen in everything that redounded to the welfare of this city and he was never too busy to listen to or assist in promoting some public measure benefit. Down at the Lamb Boat and Engine works, the hum of busy wheels was stilled this morning and strong workmen walked about with sobs and shaking their sturdy shoulders and tears falling unchecked from their eyes. That was a testimonial that a manufacturer seldom receives from the men whom he employs. "He was the salt of the earth," said a business man from Davenport, who had come to Clinton to see Mr. Lamb on business this morning. "His place in the industrial work of this city will be a hard one to fill." And all of this tribute comes to a young man who not yet attained the fullness of 34 years of life. There was so much of good possible in his future that Clinton mourns for him sincerely and deeply.
The Clinton Herald May 15, 1905 p. 3 This afternoon at half past two o'clock private funeral services for the late James Dwight Lamb were conducted at the home at Woodlands. A former rector of St. John's Episcopal church, the Rev. C.A. Riley, of Madison, Wisconsin, assisted by the Rev. Allen Judd, priest in charge at St. John's conducted the simple but beautiful and impressive Episcopal burial rites. Then the cortege wended its way slowly down the hills and on to God's acre, where the final resting place was chosen by his father and grandfather before him. At noon the principal business houses of the city closed their doors, the banks of the city also closed, many of the offices until after the hour of interment. This was done in respect to Mr. Lamb's memory. Today in Clinton is as Saturday, one of general depression. Throughout the city the feeling of loss is intensified, and the mourning for one of its leading citizens is deep and sincere. This morning from ten until twelve o'clock all friends of the family and the employees and business associates of Mr. Lamb were received at the house and given an opportunity to pay their last tribute to his memory. The men from the Lamb Boat and Engine Works went in a body to show their sympathy and respect to his memory. Mr. Lamb's body was recovered from the Mississippi river by Ellinghouse Bros. of Bellevue. It was taken from the water, 1,000 feet below where the accident had occurred and had rested in twenty feet of water. This was at 4:40 p.m. Saturday and Mr. Lamb's watch which had stopped at 4:41 o'clock showed that twenty-four hours lacking one minute had elapsed. The remains were taken upon the steamer Chaperon which with Garrett E. Lamb on board had remained at the place and brought at once to this city. They were viewed by Coroner Hullinger and this morning an inquest was held at which time all the formalities of the law were met.