Newspaper Articles   
Thursday, July 14, 1910, Stacyville Monitor

RIVER EXTRACTS A HEAVY TOLL THREE BOYS LOSE THEIR LIVES IN THE LITTLE CEDAR AT THIS PLACE FRIDAY AFTERNOON Were the Only Sons of John A. Adams Terrible Ending of a Happy Fishing Party Takes the Lives of Joseph, Martin & Michael Adams While Swimming In The River At A Point About 20 Rods North Of The End Of The Railroad Tracks …..All Buried In One Grave Not in the history of Stacyvlle has there ever occurred such a tragedy as that which occurred here last Friday afternoon when three boys, Joseph, Martin and Michael Adams, 13, 11, and 10 respectively were drowned in the river at a point about 20 rods north of the railroad. As the word flew over our little village our people dropped their work and sped with all haste to the fated spot, hoping against hope that the report was groundless or if true, that someone would reach them in time to save the boys. But such was not the case when the bodies were brought out and laid on the grass side by side. The facts in the case, as near as the Monitor has been able to ascertain are as follows: Martin Adams and family of St. Paul, an uncle of the dead boys, were visiting at the John A. Adams home that day. After dinner Mr. Adams proposed to the boys that the afternoon should be spent in fishing and taking the three boys and Leo Adams, who was also at the Adams home, the party started out for the river, where they later joined Albert Heimer, another boy of their age. Things went along nicely and all were enjoying themselves immensely until about 4 o'clock when Mr. Adams became thirsty and leaving the boys, came uptown for a drink. Left to themselves the boys decided to go in swimming. After disrobing and getting into the water, they began to play "follow the leader". The five boys with little Michael Adams in the lead all took hold of hands and started out into the river. Albert Heimer, who was last, warned them to look out for deep water, to which Mike answered, "What's the difference, we can swim". Just then he stepped off into a hole six feet deep. From this on the story can only be conjecture for the remaining boys were so excited that no account can be gotten from them. The supposition is, however, that the three boys, being in the lead and having hold of hands, when the first got into the deep water the other two tried to save him and in doing so were dragged into the deep place themselves and unable to get back thus all three were drowned. Leo Adams, too was drawn under and would have drowned but he broke loose from the boy who had hold of his hand, and Albert Heimer succeeded in getting out and saving him. When Albert and Leo got on shore they hastily put on their clothes and ran uptown and gave the alarm, or at least Leo ran up to the Adams home and Albert ran downtown towards the dam to get a boat. From the Adams home Dr. Brown was called and told to go to the river and central began sending the alarm over town. A large portion of the men folks of the town were at the ballgrounds, where the east side of the town were going to play the west side; the game was just about to begin when the word reached them. The first ones to reach the scene were apparently afraid to go into the water and it was not unit Mayor John Heumann arrived before any attempt was made to recover the bodies. Mayor Heumann at once went into the water and after about five minutes found the body of Joseph. About this time Joe Weber went into the stream and found Martin and Mayor Heumann found Mike. The funerals were held Saturday afternoon; Rev. Schlueter preaching a very impressive sermon in St. Mary's Church to the largest congregation that has ever been in the church since its dedication, after which the bodies were borne to their final resting place. The three bodies were laid side by side in one large grave. Never before in our long experience in the news business have we been called upon to write the obituary of three persons from the same family at once. Only once before in our entire lives has such an occurrence come within our personal observation. It is indeed sad at anytime to stand by the bedside of the dying and watch life's ebbing tide drifting slowly but surely into the great ocean of eternity, but we cannot grasp the magnitude of such sadness when the home circle is so ruthlessly torn asunder and three of its members - the only boys of the family are snatched into eternity in the twinkling of an eye. Such sorrow is beyond our grasp, and words fail us in attempting to say something that would adequately bring a ray of light to the sorrowing hearts of the bereaved parents and sisters. In the presence of such a sorrow, how cold and impotent are words, and how doubly deep would be the grief over the grave did not the rainbow of Christian hope span the dark gulf between time and eternity. Joseph Adams was born March 9, 1897, and died July 8, 1910, aged 13 years, 3 months and 29 days. Martin Anandus Adams was born February 11, 1899, and at the time of his death was 11 years, 4 months and 21 days. Besides their sorrowing father and mother, they leave to mourn their sad deaths four sisters, Eva, Tillie, Elizabeth and Frances, a foster brother Charles Schein of Minneapolis, and a large number of other relatives and friends. To make this more sad if possible two of the above children, Tillie and Frances are afflicted and can in no way help themselves and of a family of 13 children, only these four are left. Stacyville Monitor Thursday, July 14, 1910 Note - Transcription error that left out Michael Adams' birthdate, and age at time of death. Original article has a picture of the place in the river where drowning occurred. Contributor note - this article relates to two orphan train riders. My rider Lizzie (Magerus?) Schumacher lived with the John and Mary Adams family and took care of their children. Lizzie is listed on the 1900 Census as a servant in their household. Initially, Lizzie was placed in the home of Joseph and Mary Schumacher. At some point, possibly in 1897 after Mary Schumacher died; Lizzie moved into the Adams household. Lizzie married Phillip Thome, a brother of Mary (Thome) Adams. Near the end of this article, orphan train rider Charlie Schien is listed as a foster brother to the Adams children. Philip and Joseph Thome and the latter's son Wm., and Charles Schein of Minneapolis came down last Saturday to attend the funer- al of the three Adams boys. Stacyville Monitor, July 14, 1910

Copyright Notice: All files on this site are copyrighted by their creator and/or contributor. They may be linked to but may not be reproduced on another site without specific permission from Tina Vickery [tsvickery@gmail.com] and/or their contributor. Although public information is not in and of itself copyrightable, the format in which they are presented, the notes and comments, etc., are. It is however, quite permissable to print or save the files to a personal computer for personal use ONLY. My very special thanks to Holly Timm for the creation of the banner graphic used on this page. Space for the these pages is provided by the Friends of the IAGenWeb.

Addresses	Beginning	Biographies
County	Interactive	Lookup
Neighbors	Newspapers	Orphanages/Societies
Photographs	Surnames	Riders
Join the Team!	IAGenWeb Project	What's New!
Home