George Flower Andrews

ANDREWS, BAILEY, NIETERT, PHILLIPS

Posted By: CJeanealogy (email)
Date: 12/15/2019 at 14:14:58

This is from the Cedar Rapids Republican and Times on August 7, 1922
FOUR DROWN WAPSIE RIVER AT TROY MILLS
Flower Andrews and Three Small Daughters Go Down to Death
SAD ENDING TO PICNIC
Boat in Which Severn Were Ridging Capsized in Fifteen Feet of Water
THE DEAD
Flower Andrews, aged 37 years
Donna Andrews, aged 8 years
Doris Andrews, aged 4 years
Charlotte L??? Andrews, aged 3 months
The saddest tragedy in Linn county this year was enacted Sunday afternoon about 1 o'clock on the Wapsie river about a mile above Troy Mills when Flower Andrews of Troy Mills and his three small daughters were drowned in fifteen feet of water.
It was a sad ending to what promised to be a merry picnic and threw a shadow of sorrow and sadness over the entire community.
Andrews lived at Troy Mills and drove the truck there. He also served as life saver at the Troy Mills beach, being an expert swimmer.
About noon, with his wife and five small children and his sister, Miss Fern Andrews, he took a rowboat and started up the river on a picnic excursion. About a mile above Troy Mills the boat ran aground on a sandbar. His little son got out of the boat and shoved it off into the deeper water. As the boat left the sand it suddenly upended, the rear end going down into the water and the upper end high in the air. The entire party was thrown into the water, which at that point is about fifteen feet.
The other girl and Miss Fern Andrews clang to the boat and were pulled to shore by the boy who did not leave the sandbar. Mrs. Andrews, taking her two younger girls in arms, after a hard struggle, sank down on the sand exhausted, only to discover that while she had saved them, both had been drowned while being pulled through the water. The strange part of the entire tragedy is that Andrews seems to have been helpless from the moment he struck the water, for as near as can be ascertained, he sank immediately and did not come up. The little 8-year-old girl Donna, left to herself, sank to her death. Her body was recovered in a short time.
The news of the tragedy quickly spread and a large crowd from all the surrounding territory was soon on the scene and dragging of the river was started for the recovery of the body of Mr. Andrews. It was found by L. Shafer about 5 o'clock last evening.
Andrews was well known in the northern part of the county and was a nephew of Flower Phillips of Central City.

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