Frank H. Niforatos (ca. 1893-1920)

NIFORATOS

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 9/25/2016 at 15:26:11

From Nevada Representative May 13, 1920 (front page)

BODY OF GREEK FOUND MONDAY

COLLEGE STUDENTS DISCOVER BODY WHILE FISHING JUST BELOW SCENE OF ACCIDENT

J. A. Channette and W. J. Agnew, two Ames college students, while fishing in the Squaw Creek about forty rods below the Lincoln Way bridge, discovered the body of the young Greek, Frank H. Niforatos, who was drowned on Friday, April 2nd, when the car in which he and two companions went through the railing of the Squaw Creek bridge. With the assistance of Martin Lund, the body was pulled to the edge of a sand bar and Chief of Police Cure of Ames notified.

The body was recovered about forty rods below the bridge in what is the third bend in the stream below Lincoln Way. There it had become lodged in some willow branches at the end of a log.

Chief of Police Cure immediately telephoned the coroner at Nevada for permission to remove the body from the water, which was granted.

It was a noon on Friday, April 2, that the make-shift Squaw Creek bridge claimed the toll of life when Frank H. Niforatos was drowned, and Frank Coukoulis, proprietor of the Paradise and Princess candy kitchens and at that time partner in the Paradise and American theaters, was seriously injured when Coukoulis' car went through the railing of the death trap bridge into the waters of the creek, twenty feet below.

Coukoulis suffered a broken shoulder and was badly crushed when the car smashed through the bridge railing, turned over and landed about thirty fee down stream, close to the west bank, Niforatos, who was riding with Coukoulis, was thrown out and from that day until Sunday no trace was found of the body.

Every possible means was used to an effort to find the drowned man. The search was kept up for days to no avail. The Indians from the Tama reservation were brought to Ames to hunt the creek for the body, but they too, were unsuccessful. Dynamite was shot into the creek in the hope that it would bring the body to the top, but this also failed.

Today, the theory is held that the body was buried in the sand and that the last high water washed the sand away, releasing the body and allowing it to come to the surface.

Niforatos was 27 years old. He was a native of Valsamata in the state of Kefallinias, Greece. He is survived by two brothers living in Ames, Pantis and Marinos Niforatos, and by two sisters, a brother and the aged parents living at the old home.