grave import

Obituary

One of the most terrible river disasters which ever occurred in this vicinity, was that of the founder of the steamer Evertt, of this city, at the head of Otter Island, about six miles north of the city at seven o’clock last evening, whereby five persons were instantly drowned and two others had exceedingly narrow escapes from a like fate. The storm of last evening was so sudden and terrible and the wind blew so hard while it lasted that a number of boats tied up at the shore here rather than brave the raging elements. Shortly after six o’clock, during a lull in the storm, the steamer Everett, owned and commanded by Captain Vincent Peel, and in commission for the Burlington Lumber Company, stated for New Boston Bay, about forty miles up the river, for a raft of logs for the company for which she was in commission. It was an ill-fated voyage, and it would have been better for all on board had the departure of the boat been deferred until morning. Rain fell and gusts of wind blew occasionally as the boat proceeded on her way, but nothing unusual or alarming happened until the boat reached the head of Otter Island. As the boat was crossing the channel at this point, and when she was about two hundred yards from the Illinois shore, the storm broke in all its fury.
The first blast of the storm was not severe, and although the boat went partway over, she almost immediately righted herself. The pilot then endeavored to get her head pointed into the wind and had almost succeeded when the second and fatal blast struck and she immediately went over on her beam ends and began to sink. It was a terrible moment for those on board. For the pilot and those on the lower deck and in other open parts of the boat, escape was comparatively easy, but for the six poor people who were in the cabin, there was almost absolutely no hope. As the boat settled down in the water her side caught on the river bottom and the current sing her around until she lay almost directly across the stream, with her bow towards the Iowa shore. As the boat went over, a number of the crew clambered up to the windward side and clung to the guards with desperate energy, well knowing that certain death stared them in the face if they loosed their hold. Others who were not so fortunate, but who were all, luckily, able to swim, swam around until they were rescued by their comrades and pulled up onto the wreck out of immediate danger. About six feet of the boat’s side protruded above the water and to this fact alone the survivors owe their lives, as had the water been deeper and the boat gone entirely under, it is hardly probable that any would have been saved.
The following is a full list of all who were on the boat; Vincent Peel, captain; Harry Bell, pilot; Mrs. Harry Bell, clerk, and her little three-year-old daughter; Jim Harris, engineer; George Howard, first cook; Mrs. George Howard, second cook; Andrew Hess, Samuel Frantz, Frank Smith, Samuel Goble, Daniel Goble, Phillip Higgins, Charles Tubbs, Frank Ventriss, and a nurse girl known as the “Pomeroy girl” but whose right name is Rhoda Van Ettan, and whose parents live near Denmark, and Harry Bell, the pilot, was at his place at the wheel, and when the boat went over the pilothouse stove was torn from its fastenings and struck him in the face, cutting a severe gash under his eye, but luckily not knocking him senseless. As the pilothouse was settling in the water Mr. Bell broke a number of the windows out and made his escape, swimming to the side of the boat and climbing up on the wreck with the others. Captain Peel, Mrs. Bell, and her little child, George Howard, and his wife, and Rhoda Van Ettan were shut up in the cabin and it is a wonder that even one of them was saved. The windows and doors were all shut tight, but the water forced it was in like a sluice. It is supposed that Captain Peel was knocked senseless and perhaps killed as the boat went over, as he has a terrible wound on the left side of his head which must have been caused by his striking something hard with great force. The others, with the exception of Mrs. Howard, perished miserably beneath the wave, there being no chance of resue for them. Mrs. Howard, fortunately, found a place along the upper edge of the cabin which was not submerged, knocked a hole through a transom with her hand to get air, and after enduring about thirty minutes of the keenest agony was rescued by the men, who at last heard her cries.
The situation of those clinging to the wreck was now desperate in the extreme, as the current was liable at any minute to tear away the sunken boat from her resting place and carry all the survivors to watery graves. Harry Bell knew that his wife was in the cabin at the time of the disaster, and being unable to stand the awful suspense of not knowing whether she was drowned or not, he soon began to search for her. Nothing could be seen except at intervals when flashes of lightning lighted up the scene, but at last, through a hole kicked by him in the transom, Mr. Bell grasped a woman’s dress, the dress worn by his wife. The body of Mrs. Bell was drawn out, but although it was still warm, life had fled. Willing hands worked for hours, all efforts to rescue her were in vain. About nine o’clock, two hours after the boat went down, the continued cries of the survivors were answered by the appearance of two men, Andy and Sam Jacobs, who had rowed to the scene in a skiff from the Illinois shore, and who at once conveyed the eleven people clinging to the wreck to the shore and safety. Soon after landing a roaring fire was built and the rescued people made themselves as comfortable as possible under the dreadful circumstances.
The Jacobs brothers then rowed to the city, bringing with them Daniel Goble and Charles Tubbs. Messrs. Wm. Lyon, superintendent of the Burlington Lumber Co., Wm. Carson, of that firm, and Coroner Unterkirtcher were at once summoned, and these gentlemen, with Goble and Tubbs, started for the scene of the dreadful disaster at one o’clock this morning in the Lotus, the tug boat of the City of Winona. The bodies of Mrs. Bell and her little girl and the nurse girl were found by this party and brought to the city early this morning. The body of Captain Peel was recovered about half-past ten this forenoon and brought to the city on the John Talor, which reached here about noon. The Park Bluff, in command of Captain Tom Peel, a brother of the unfortunate Captain of the Everett, went up to the scene of the wreck this morning and returned about two o’clock this afternoon.
The Everett was about as long as the average rafter, though a little narrow and was valued at $6000. There was some insurance on her, but the amount is not yet known. She will probably be raised, as her hull and engines are thought to be in good condition.
Captain Peel was a good citizen, an excellent river man, and one had but to know him to be his friend. He leaves a wife, a son, and two daughters to mourn his loss. Harry Bell, whose wife and little daughter were among the drowned, came here only about a week ago from California, to act as pilot on the Everett. George Howard’s body has not yet been recovered, but men are no searching for it, and it will probably soon be found. The terrible catastrophe is the main topic of conversation today and the heartfelt sympathy of our citizens for the relatives of those who came to such a sudden and untimely end is plainly manifested.
Later—A number of gentlemen who visited the wreck and returned at three o’clock, report that almost the whole top of the boat has been chopped off in the search for Howard’s body. It is unknown whether he jumped off and was swept down the river or whether his body is still fast in the wreckage. All the bodies which have been recovered were caught in the wreck and had to be torn loose, Captain Peel being found head downward, his head being imprisoned between two heavy timbers. Howard had just left the hospital here on the 7th of this month, had he stayed until tomorrow when his time would have been up, he would have been alive today.
Yesterday afternoon the large auditorium of the First Baptist Church was crowded to its utmost capacity by the throng who attended the funeral services of the late Captain Vincent Peel, his daughter, Mrs. Mary Bell, and her young daughter, Velira N. Bell, three of the five unfortunates who perished in the river disaster of last Thursday night. It does not ordinarily occur even once in a lifetime that the representatives of three generations in one family are buried at the same time, and a more impressive scene cannot be imagined than that witnessed when the caskets were opened – first one containing the body of the father, Capt. Peel, and then that containing his daughter and her child, both in one casket, appearing as if they were sweetly asleep, the child lying on her mother’s breast and enfolded in her arms. Many tears were shed by the numerous friends of the deceased in the great congregation while the long procession passed by, taking a long last look at the remains. Probably not less than one thousand people marched in the line and fully three-quarters of an hour was occupied in its moving past the caskets. The appropriate text chosen by the pastor, Rev. GJ Johnson, for his sermon on the sad occasion was from the third verse of the twentieth chapter of 1st Samuel; “There is but a step between me and death.” The sermon was beautiful and impressive, and when the services were concluded there was scarcely a dry eye in the whole congregation. The two orders to which Capt. Peel belonged, the VAS and the AOUW, attended in a body and after the services at the church took the bodies in charge and conducted the burial services at the cemetery.