Eight-Year-Old Frank Smith Drowns in White River
A young boy drowns while crossing the river in a skiff as his sisters watch helplessly.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Little Frank, the 8-year-old son of Rev. R. G. Smith, of White River, was drowned last Saturday at about 6 p.m. It seems that the little fellow was crossing the river in a skiff, his two little sisters accompanying him from school. When they reached the bank the boy began playing and suddenly slipped into the stream. During his struggles for help, his sisters succeeded in reaching a stick within a few inches of his hand, but unconsciously he would grasp anything but the proffered aid. After a struggle of five minutes, he sank and did not again rise. Thirty men were employed for three days in making a thorough search for the remains. No traces of the body have yet been found, and the bereaved parents are not allowed to pay the last, sad tributes of respect to the memory of their little loved one.
“During his struggles for help, his sisters succeeded in reaching a stick within a few inches of his hand, but unconsciously he would grasp anything but the proffered aid.”
Rivers like the White and Green remain physically and metaphorically central to the region's geography and history, though the dangerous crossings of the 1880s have been replaced by modern bridge infrastructure. The community-wide effort to recover the child's body highlights the intense, localized nature of grief in the era's small, isolated settlements.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.