Andy Haines Almost Loses Life In Bear Creek

HAINES

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 11/2/2013 at 18:56:38

The Grinnell (IA) Herald
March 26, 1912

ALMOST LOSES HIS
LIFE IN BEAR CREEK
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Andy Haines is Swept Away by
Current and is Rescued
With Difficulty.
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FINDS REFUGE ON
BIG ICE CAKE
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Team Became Entangled in Wire
Fence While Fording the
Flooded Bottom Lands.
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The Brooklyn Chronicle gives the following report of an accident which almost resulted in a fatality:

The extreme high water in Bear Creek came near costing Andy Haines his life and did cause the loss of his team and rig. The melting snow has caused both Big and Little Bear Creeks to overflow their banks and some of the older settlers declare Big Bear to be as high as at any time in the last twenty years. Andy was in town Tuesday and about four o'clock started for home which necessitated his crossing Big Bear at what is known as the L.L. Smith bridge. All of the bottom land was covered but looked as though it could be forded and he probably could have made it had it not been for a wire fence which had become loosened and washed across the road. This could not be seen and the team became tangled in it and were washed off their feet at once by the swift current. They went out of sight at once, but he managed to get on a large ice cake about half way from either side. Many were out from town and the surrounding country and though they worked diligently with no little risk to some of them it was over three hours before he could be rescued from his perilous position. This was finally accomplished by parties from the north side who tied a long rope to a water tank and after several trials it floated within his reach and he was drawn ashore in it. He suffered greatly from the cold on account of his swim to the ice floe when the team went under, but latest reports are that he has suffered no ill effect from the accident.