The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-08-26

| time had the life-preserver been of any
use. After being examined the BODY was
buried near where it was found, it being
| Impossible to transport it with the appli-
| ances at hand. As soon as the finding of
| the body was known search was imme-
dlately instituted for traces of Donaldson
or The balloon. The shore for several
miles was carefully looked over by men in
parties and singly, bGtno other body had
| yet been found and no trace of the air-bag
had been reported up to the evening Of
| the 18th.
A dispatch to the Eceaing Journal gives
the following as copy of the jottings in
Grimwood's diary:
UPIN VA BALLOON!
From the earliest DAYS of childhood have
always had presentiment that some time,
sooner or later, L was bound to rise. There
are some people who make sport of PRESENT.
ments, but, after all, presentiment is a
mandy thing to have around. Where would
have been to-day if hadn't had PRESENT.
ment! In accordance with my presentment
have risen, as it were, TO "poiut of or
der" Like great many ,lticians, 1 rise by
means of gas
regret the fact that there are only two of
us-Prof. Donaldson and myself-as Iwould
like to belong to the upper ten" Prof.
D'baiNsoh oNtibo W bG 1t very PHEASANT gen.
tleman, although philosopher and aero
nalIt. -..
Although it is scarcely an hour since
struggled into eminencc, the restraints of
my position are already beginning to be irk-
some to me and wear upon my spirits
cannot help rejecting that, if We fail, we fall
Ike Lucifer, out of the heavens, and that
upon our arrival upon earth, or, rather, upon
water-for We are over the middle of Lake
Mlchlgan--we would be literally dead.
The Chicago Jou3ndl Of the 18th says:
" Nlr. Grimwood was a young man of
more than ordinary promise-physically
stalwart, robust and strong; intellectually,
cultured, studious ard un0btrusive; So
cially, of peculiarly pleasant, good-na-
tured and humorous disposition-often
witty, always gentle; and morally, high
minded, Of noble instincts, the best of
habits and above reproach. He was ambi-
tious of excelling as a practical newspaper
man He became reporter only as step
ping-stone to something higher in the
journalistic profession, and had he lived
he would no doubt have been a sue
cessful humorist and essayist in literature
His last words among his assembled
associates in the JounHl office on the
afternoon Of the day he assembled in the
balloon were jovial and he was unusually
full Of good spirits. He was twenty two
years Of age in February last, and was en-
gagged to be married to lady in Lockport,
III. His aged father, Mr. William Grim
wood, of Kendall County, H., is in the
city to-day, sadly awaiting the arrival of
the body of his mourned SON.
THE HOUR OF THE DISASTER.
In regard TO the time of the fatal acci-
dent the J0urnal of the Goth says:
=" In specializing upon the probable time
the balloon went into the water, the watch
found on the body of Grimwood MAY
furnish very valuable assistance, if indeed
the testimony it gives is not almost abso.
lutely conclusive. Though dumb. it still
speaks; and though it has become rusty
by lying five weeks in the water and on
the shore, still it reveals the secrets of the
last fearful hour and the struggle with
death, upon which so much has
been said and written. It is a small,
lady's gold watch, and when found the
crysta' was gone. TIE breaking of the
crystal, IN all probability, occurred at a
period subsequent to its going into the
water, and quite likely while the body
was drifting toward the place where ii
was found upon the shore. The hands
remain undisturbeG, and point to twenty
minutes past eleven. Was that the fatal
moment when, struck and overcome bv
the gale, ballast all out, the balloon re-
fused longer to carry its load of human
freight, and gave them over to a helpless
and unequal struggle with the waves?
The watch was received at this Office
in exactly the condition it was
when taken from the pocket of Grim
wood. 1t is important to know, in
order to determine the value of the evil
dence, whether it was run down, and if it
was then but little or nothing is deter
mined by it. This question was deter
mined this morning by an examination by
MIR. }. ii. Allison, the experienced watch
maker at the establishment of Matson Il
20. He opened the watch, the first time
1t had been opened since it was closed by
GrimWood himself in the balloon. The
examination revealed that the watch had
certainly not run more than five hours and
twenty minutes after it was wound up.
MIR. Allison states, what accords with rea-
son and the belief of everyone, that the
watch would stop almost instantaneously
after going into the water. The cases he
found somewhat loose, which would
readily admit the water to the works. Five
hours and twenty minutes before it stopped
would be six O'Clock, the time when it
must have been wound up. The time
when the balloon went up, as observed by
a Journal man, was eleven minutes to five.
So the watch must have been wound while
they were in the clouds. The time indi-
Gated by the watch corresponds to the
time they would meet the squall. The
gale that night is a known fact. The tes-
timony of the watch confirms the theory of
the disaster generally accepted by the peo-
pie, which is, discarding all far-tetched
and finespun theories, that the balloon
and its passengers were swept into the lake
before the fury of the blast"