Joseph Ward

WARD

Posted By: Karen Bergquist Uhr, volunteer
Date: 6/29/2004 at 16:46:57

COULDN'T SWIM

Joseph Ward falls from a stone boat at Bentonsport, and is drowned.

Yesterday afternoon while some workmen on the Bentonsport dam were engaged in poleing a boatload of stone out to the workmen on the dam, one of their number named Joseph Ward, in some unaccountable manner, fell into the river about eight feet of water. The boat was stopped as soon as possible, and a young man named Blount, the only one of the number that could swim, plunged in to his aid, but Ward caught him with a drowning man's grasp, and it was only by the greatest of efforts that he succeded in releasing himself from the grip and returning to the boat. Meanwhile Ward, who could not swim, sank from sight, having only come to the surface once.

The alarm was at once given, and in an incredable short space of time, a large number of willing workers were on the scene endeavoring to recover the body. In about 15 minutes Tobe Carter, one of the divers, succeeded in bringing it to the surface, and every effort in human power was made at resusitation, but in vain. The heart, our informant stated, was still beating when the body was brought to shore, but after working two hours, they were reluctantly compelled to admit that effort was vain. The deceased leaves a wife and six children, the youngest only about a week old.

Source: Newspaper unknown
Margaret Johnson Meek Scrapbook

Note: No dates are given, but in an obituary of somone else pasted on the same page, the date of death was 1881)