Charles Albert Maulsby (1925)

MAULSBY, STRONG, MCLEES, BROWN, SHEPERD, SHEETS, HUNT

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 1/14/2009 at 08:36:59

Earlham Library Collection
Earlham Echo

Obituary

Charles Albert Maulsby, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Maulsby, was born August 29, 1882, in Guthrie County, and died August 2, 1925, at Des Moines, Iowa, aged 43 years, 11 months and 4 days.

All of his life has been spent in Iowa near the place of his birth. The family lived for a time in Guthrie County, later removing to Earlham, where Charles reached young manhood, and finally to Valley Junction and Des Moines. It was while on an outing with his family near the latter place that he met an untimely death.

He was united in marriage to Miss Lucy Bell Strong, Feb. 7, 1903, at Earlham. To this happy union were born three children, Gertrude, Billy and Howard, the second of whom died in infancy at the age of 11 days.

Surviving him are the widow and companion, a daughter Mrs. Gertrude McLees of Davenport, Iowa, a son Howard aged 9 years, the father A. P. Maulsby of Valley Junction, four sisters, Mrs. E. L. Brown of Earlham, Mrs. C. M. Sheperd of Des Moines, Mrs. Leroy Sheets of Valley Junction, Mrs. C. W. Hunt of Knoxville, one brother E. E. Maulsby of Earlham, and a host of friends.
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Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
Thursday, August 6, 1925

C. A. Maulsby Dies in Raccoon River

Drowns in Thirty Feet of Water After Unavailing Effort to Combat Cramp and Undertow. A Former Local Farmer and Business Man.

C. A. Maulsby, brother of E. E. Maulsby, and Mrs. E. L. Brown, known to us for many years as a fellow townsman, was drowned in the Coon River southeast of Des Moines at about one-thirty Sunday afternoon. A strong confident swimmer, he was suddenly seized by a deadly cramp and sank in thirty-five feet of water. Three times he came to the surface, and to the last of his consciousness he must have been planning how to defeat the element which was trying to destroy him. Even in death his mouth was closed and a negligible amount of water had entered his lungs. Somehow he had extricated himself from the suit of coveralls in which he was clothed, and his body was twenty feet from them when the draggers located it at about six that evening. He had relieved himself of this burden and had apparently tried to crawl out of the hole, but in the wrong direction, when suffocation paralyzed his muscles.

Charles was operator of a pump which lifted the water from the river for the use of the Great Western and Rock Island shops nearby. Mrs. Maulsby and Howard, also John Smith, former Earlham resident had come out from Des Moines to take dinner with him, and the party were seeking afternoon amusement. Mrs. Maulsby went fishing around the bend and Mr. Maulsby and Howard decided to go swimming, meanwhile Smith looked on. They crossed an arm of the stream, Howard, eight years old, riding on his father’s back across the current, ten feet deep at this place. Beyond the sandbar stretched the “boot” or suction hose of a sand dredge located across the river, and Mr. Maulsby could hardly have failed to know that a very deep hole existed at this spot. In fact this part of the river was forbidden to bathers on account of the undertow resulting from the swift current sucking into the deep hole under the dredge. Confident of his ability he ignored the danger, hung upon the boot for a moment and plunged into the deep water. The cramp contracted his muscles and he sank before the eyes of his son, still standing in the shallow water on the bar. The boy sensed the situation at once and screamed. Mrs. Maulsby saw her husband struggling and without a moment’s delay, went for help. Smith, terrified out of his senses, also ran for help and was not seen again. By the time Mrs. Maulsby returned with two engineers from the roundhouse the moment when help could suffice had passed and the smooth waters of the river flowed over the tragedy of a life taken and a family circle broken.

In the meantime Howard, terror-stricken, had plunged into the deep water separating him from shore and mother and somehow had come through alive. Without being able to swim he made the crossing, no one knows how, passed over the railroad bridge, dressed and met his mother at the fatal spot. There was nothing to do. Minutes before the boy had seen the lifeless body of his father borne a third time to the surface by the treacherous current and sink slowly for the last time. The fast increasing crowd made vain efforts to secure the body while there was still a chance for resuscitation, but not until the Des Moines police force was on the spot with drags was there a concerted effort made to scratch the bottom of the sand hole.

News of the tragedy did not reach the local Maulsby’s until about five-thirty, while they were still at Dexfield Park, Clarence being engaged in the ball game. They hastened to Des Moines at once. A short funeral service was held at the home Wednesday morning, and the body was then brought to Earlham for the services here at two o’clock in the afternoon, conducted by Rev. W. P. Fink at the Presbyterian Church. Interment was in the Penn Center cemetery.