David Gull (1897-1919)

GULL

Posted By: Ethel Cunningham (email)
Date: 11/17/2022 at 20:39:33

FIRST LOSS OF LIFE

Man Drowns at Grimes Sandpit Sunday

Body recovered in three hours

David Gull, a farm laborer, loses life at popular swimming place on Sunday afternoon when large crowd was in water.

The first drowning at Le Mars bathing resort, the Grimes sand pit, occurred Sunday afternoon when David Gull, who was employed by Ernest Eyres as a farm laborer, lost his life.

Gill came to town with a couple neighbor boys who did not go swimming and was a stranger to all the 150 bathers. After he had been in the water a short time people on the bank noticed a man go down and not come up, but there was such a crowd diving in that vicinity they thought they might have been mistaken. It was a half hour or more before it was definitely determined anyone was missing, and then search was begun for the drowned man which lasted three hours before the body was finally brought to the surface by means of a minnow seine which was weighted and dragged across the bottom of the pit.

David Gull was born in Siberia and was twenty-four years old. He worked for Ernest Eyres last spring and was drafted for army service, being assigned to the Eighty-third division last July. After his discharge, he returned to Sioux City where he has a brother, Prakop Gull, then employed in the Milwaukee shops at Riverside. David returned Mr. Eyres in March this year. He received his final citizenship papers while in the army.

He was supposed to be a good swimmer and apparently had been swimming around for some time before he went down. He made no outcry or struggle and it is not known whether he suffered an attack of heart failure or was exhausted and unable to swim to shore or call for help.

His brother had not been located last evening.

~Le Mars Semi-Weekly Sentinel Tuesday, June 24th, 1919