Solomon Perry Hilsabeck

HILSABECK

Posted By: Joseph K. Hilsabeck (email)
Date: 1/3/2011 at 19:17:28

Evening Times Republican, Marshalltown, Iowa, Monday, July 13, 1903

Soloman Hilsabeck, a Well-known Farmer Living Near Albion Drowns in River

Body Not Yet Recovered

Goes in bathing with a party of friends Sunday Afternoon and swift current carries him down stream – in an effort to save him William Wilson has close call.

Solomon Hilsabeck, a well-known farmer living five miles northwest of Albion, was drowned Sunday afternoon at about 4 o’clock in the Iowa River near his home. Hilsabeck was in bathing and started to brave the current, made unusually swift because of the heavy rise of Saturday. In his attempt to swim the river he was carried down stream, and soon became exhausted. Help got to him, but the rescuer himself became a victim of cramp, and had a hard time to save himself. Hilsabeck went down in fifteen feet of water and at 3 o’clock this afternoon the body had not yet been recovered.
There were fifteen or twenty men in the party that went to the river to bathe Sunday afternoon. They realized that the current was swift, but they did not consider that there was any especial danger. Friday afternoon’s heavy rains north sent the river up two feet or more Saturday afternoon, and it was still up Sunday. Mr. Hilsabeck concluded to try to make the opposite shore, but could not successfully breast the current, which kept bearing him further and further down stream from the objective landing place. He began to become fatigued and attempted, when almost exhausted, to rest by catching a brush pile that had lodged in mid-stream. His weight was too much for the brush and it gave way. Hilsabeck then called for help and William Wilson, one of the party, a neighbor of the unfortunate man, living one mile north, swam rapidly with the current to Hilsabeck’s assistance. He reached him and might have been able to land him safely had he not become a victim of cramp. He had to fight to free himself from Hilsabeck’s grasp, and only by the greatest efforts reached the other bank. Hilsabeck went down immediately after Wilson was compelled to let go of his grasp. The body never rose after it disappeared under the surface of the water.

Big Searching Party at Work

A large searching party was immediately put to work in an attempt to recover the body. Those who were at the swimming place made every effort until dark to locate it but were unsuccessful. The precaution was taken to build a fence of woven wire netting at a point about three quarters of a mile below where the drowning occurred, at what is known as Indian Bridge, the first one south of Liscomb. This morning the searching party was enlarged, and all day between forty and fifty men have been dragging the river with grappling hooks. Unless the body had become lodged, it is feared that the current might have been swift enough to carry it on past the point where the netting was placed, even before the men could build it.

Hilsabeck Well Known

Mr. Hilsabeck was one of the best-known farmers of the Albion-Liscomb neighborhood, and was an old resident of the county. He was about 50 years of age and leaves a wife and five children, three daughters and two sons. The children are Mrs. Myron Ewalt, who lives four and one-half miles northwest of Albion; Mrs. Alva Smith, who resides east of this city; and Miss Addie and Mr. Phin Hilsabeck, who are at home, and Mr. Benjamin Hilsabeck, who lives near Okoboji.

Evening Times Rebublican, Marshalltown, Iowa, Wednesday, July 15, 1903, p. 7

HILSABECK FOUND

Remains of Drowned Man Discovered

In the River One Mile North of Stanley’s Mill at 6 O’clock Tuesday Evening

Decomposition Rendered Identification Almost Impossible

The body of Solomon Hilsabeck, the farmer living five miles northwest of Albion, who was drowned Sunday afternoon, was discovered Tuesday evening by “Tod” Bridgeman, who, after an hour’s work, recovered it. A boy named Bivens, it seems, had seen what he thought was a man’s body, in the forenoon, and told Bridgeman. Decomposition has set in to such an extent that it was almost an impossibility to recognize the body, excepting by a scar. The body had lodged against a pile of driftwood, and had been carried below the wire netting before it was strung across the river Monday at Indian Bridge. The remains were buried at the Bethel Grove Cemetery at midnight.