Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Thriller Thursday - The Drowning Deaths of Emma Roeschel Courtney and her Daughters

While these people aren't related to me, they are related to the Holt family of Ray county, Missouri. My great-great grandmother, Susan Davidson Percival took as her second husband, Thomas Holt. It is more convoluted than that, but there is a connection to his family. The incident happened on August 10, 1905.

DROWN AT BOONVILLE

MRS. WM. COURTNEY AND TWO DAUGHTERS AND YOUNG LADY VISITOR LOSE LIVES IN RIVER.


Four persons were drowned at 8:45 o'clock last night in the Missouri River at Boonville, Mo., through the overturning of a gasoline launch. Several others had narrow escapes. Mrs. Wm. Courtney of Sedalia, Mo., chaperones a party of nine young men and ladies on an outing to Chouteau Springs. It was while they were attempting to effect a landing that the boat was overturned in striking a pier of the Boonville bridge.

The launch was about six or seven feet from shore when it capsized. Mrs. Courtney, her two little daughters (author's note: Catherine & Helen ages 6 and 8 respectively) and Miss Nellie Varney, the latter of Boonville, Mo., were those drowned.

The others in the boat were Miss Mabel Roeschel, a niece of Mrs. Courtney's; Miss Kate Heighberger, Ernest Roeschel, Harry Miller, Richard Smith, and a Mr. Churchill. The young men in the boat succeeded in rescuing Misses Roeschel and Heighberger.

Mrs. Courtney was the daughter of the late Dr. and Mrs. William Roeschel. A brother is a well-known druggist of Sedalia. Mrs. Courtney was about 32 years of age. She and her daughters had been in Boonville three days visiting her parents. She was the wife of a Sedalia shoe manufacturer.

(Moberly Evening Democrat, Moberly, Missouri, 11 August 1905.)


Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

2 comments:

  1. I didn't even know it was possible for an adult to drown six feet from shore.

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  2. It was if you had two young daughters with you and you were wearing long skirts. Possible she couldn't swim either. Trapped under the boat?

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