Rockville Mills Calamity

BERTELSEN, PALMER, TUBBS, ARNOLD, MORSE

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 3/9/2009 at 11:21:33

Jackson Sentinel
May 11, 1893

DROWNED.

Sad Calamity at the Rockville Mills.
-The Head gate breaks away and Drowns Mr. Andrew Bertelsen, the Miller, while in the Wheel Pit.

A sad calamity occurred last Sunday at the Rockville Mills, about one and a quarter miles north of Maquoketa, by the accidental drowning of Mr. Andrew Bertelsen, the proprietor of the mills. He had been reading during the forenoon until about 11 o’clock when he remarked to his wife that it looked some like rain and that there was some drift wood in one of the wheels that he thought he had better get out before the water in the river became higher. He started to the mill saying that he would be back soon for dinner, but he knew not the sad fate in store for him.

A little before one o’clock Mrs. Bertelsen sent one of her sons to call him to dinner. He soon returned informing her that he could see nothing of his father, that the head gate had broken away and there was eight or ten feet of water in flume. They at once gave the alarm to the neighbors and Wm. Palmer rode hastily to town and gave the alarm here. Sidney Tubbs and James Arnold, living not far from the mill, were the first to respond and it required an hour or more before they could lower the rushing water sufficient to get into the wheel pit to make a search. They succeeded, however, with the assistance of H. P. Morse, and found the body lodged in the wheel, head down. It was brought up from the pit, which is some 12 feet below the floor, with difficulty, and every effort made to bring back life, but without avail. This was about half past two o’clock and it was thought the body had been in the water for two hours or more. The slats upon a ladder descending into the wheel pit were all broken but two and it is the belief from bruises found upon his limbs, that he heard the waters coming and attempted to ascend the ladder hurriedly, when the slats broke precipitating him into the swift current below.