James Wm. Hamlin (1906-1922)

HAMLIN

Posted By: Doug Atkinson (email)
Date: 3/29/2009 at 07:17:32

James William Hamlin
(January 17, 1906 - July 30, 1922)

James Hamlin, 17, Steps Off
Into Deep Water at Wertz' Hole.

Wading With Friends

Body is Recovered by Fisherman
With a Trout Line - Doctor
Works on Boy for Two
Hours Without Avail.

Stepping off into seven feet of
water while wading within four feet
of his brother and two friends at a
lagoon known as "Wertz' hole" three
quarters of a mile from the west
shore of Lake Manawa Sunday eve-
ning, James Hamlin, 17, son of Thom-
as Hamlin living near district school
No. 3 was under water so long be-
fore fishermen hauled him out with
a trout line that the efforts of a phy-
sician for more than an hour failed
to resuscitate him.

He died after Dr. Phillip Cogley,
who was rushed to the scene in police
ambulance, had rended artificial re-
spiration and worked over the boy
for almost one hour and a half.

The body was removed to Wood-
ring and Jackson's funeral home.

Young Hamlin was wading in four
or five feet of water with his brother,
Archie. Glen Miller and Harold Mil-
ler, neighbor boys, when he stepped
off into the deep hold and disappeared.
The other youths saw the lad go
under water and becoming alarmed
when he did not reappear for more
than a minute, ran shouting for help.

Reuben Adkins, R.F.D. box 263,
was fishing nearby and attracted by
the shouts of the boys, ran to the
scene and succeeded in throwing a
fishing line over the body of the
lad and hauled him ashore.

Life was not extinct and Adkins
ran in a nearby house to call for
help from the police station. Doctor
Cogley commenced to work on the
boy as soon as he arrived, without
causing the patient to be removed
from the banks of the lagoon, but his
efforts were without avail.

Young Hamlin was a student in the
local high school and was rated as
one of the best rifle shots in the
ROTC. He is survived by his father,
who is a director of the Lewis town-
ship school, a brother and a sister.

The funeral will be held Wednes-
day afternoon at 2 o'clock from
Woodring & Jackson's chapel, with
burial in Walnut Hill cemetery.