WILLIE MCDANIEL

MCDANIEL, BERNARD, HAYWOOD

Posted By: Becke Dawson (email)
Date: 1/2/2008 at 18:44:46

IOWA STATE REGISTER, Tuesday, August 23, 1881

THE TENTH VICTIM
Sunday the Des Moines river afforded to the Coroner a tenth corpse to dress and sent swift winged sorrow to darken another home. The particulars of the unfortunate affair are as follows: WILLIE MCDANIEL, a 12 year old boy who lives with his father out north of Cottage Grove near Smith's brickyard, and seven of his little play-mates went out to the Des Moines River Sunday forenoon to engage in the pleasures of bathing. The point at which the boys went in is near the old Close farm. None of the boys could swim. Willie McDaniels, in the usual playful way, got beyond his depths, and sank to rise no more. The two Bernard boys, of a similar age, would have also drowned had not the Haywood deaf and dumb boy who was standing on the bank of the river, given assistance. The drowning occurred about one o'clock. The body was found at five o'clock in the evening, after being in the water for about four hours, a seine being used in the successful endeavor to find it. The body was immediately taken home to the heartbroken parents, and the undertaker sent for. This makes the tenth victim to a watery grave in the neighborhood of this city this season - nearly all of whom met their death on Sunday. A large number of good people find a very significant moral in this latter fact. The season is not over yet by a considerable, and it remains to be seen whether the moral drawn and the warning given are heeded.