Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-04-10

List of Dead and wounded-Heroic Action
of the Pilot and His Son-Three Hundred
and Fifty Bales of Cotton Burned.
EUFALA, Ala, April 4.
The steamer Rebecca Eyeringham,
plying between Columbus, Ga, and Apal-
achicola, Fla, burned to the waters edge
at Fitzgerald Landing, four miles above
Florence, Ga, and twenty-eight miles
above Eufala, at four O'Clock yesterday
morning. She was loaded with 800 bales
cotton and carried about thirty passen-
gers. The fire is supposed to have occur
red by the falling of a particle of carbon
from the electric light. The boat was in
mid-stream when the alarm was given,
and was quickly enveloped in smoke and
fame, lighting up the sky for miles
around. The cry of fire was the signal
for terrible panic, and officers of the
boat describe the scene as of the widest
character. Men and women rushed hithe1
and thither in their night garments i'm
ploring aid. The boat was headed for
land by the pilot, but before a landing
was effected nearly every part was sur
rounded by fire. Within thirty minutes
after, the bank was touched and the few
that it was possible to save landed. The
boat burned down to the hull and sever
ing the mooring drifted into the stream
ana sank half mile below.
Among those known to have been lost
are:
W. L. Kennedy, Eufaula.
Mrs. Avant, Cuthbert, Ga.
Miss Simpson, sister of Mrs. Avant,
Ft. Gaines, Ga.
Julia Adams, coiored, chamber-maid.
Dolph Thomas, deck hand.
Randall Singer, deck hand.
A. Z. Stephen, colored, deck hand.
Robert Griffin, coiored, stevedore.
4 colored woman and child, names not
known, are missing.
j. III. Hightowe, Eufaula, is missing.
Two other white men, passengers,
names not ascertained, were fatally
burned.
E. b. Williams, La Grange, was fatally
burned.
Captain George Whiteside and Second
Engineer J. Il. Carey were seriously
burned.
Two wagon and two batteau loads of
survivors and effects reached Eufanla at
p. M, among whom was the pilot, e.
IL. Lapham, to whose heroism and that
of his young son they who did escape are
indebted for their lives. When the pilot
saw the danger they were in he did not
wait for the boat to make a landing co
make fast, but ordered his son overheard
with rope He swan ashore and made
fast, and then swan back and heroically
went to work to save life. The noble
pilot was the last to desert the deck and
then only after saving the life of two
women.
Pilot Lapham gave the gloomy report
that it was impossible at present to ar
rive at the number that may have per-
ished, as the names given above received
from him, and the small number seen
alive after the disaster, made it apparent
that the roll of missing is larger, and
among these may be others burned and
drowned.
One lady saved herself by jumping
from the cabin to the deck below, twenty
five feet, on the opposite side from the
flames, and another by clnging to the
motionless wheel. One of the passengers,
Mr.. J. 3. Yates, had presentiment of dis |
aster and spoke of it the preceding night. |
So strongly impressed was he that, when !
retiring, he refused to disrobe, but slept |
in rubber coat with his valise at hand |
and sleeping nervously. When the alarm |
SOuuucu Ile IcdCuCO lOE LIS STIpSdCh anu /
looked for the shore with no thought of |
safety to others.
No officers lost or seriously injured.
The Everingham had a cargo of $50 bales |
of cotton, valued at $4,000. OF this |
234 bales belonged to III. L. Hull |
& Company, EufauIa, and was covered I
with insurance. The balance was not in |
sured. The steamer Everingham was |
built about two years ago. She was the
newest and handsomest craft on the /
Chattahoochee Rlver'and belonged to the |
Central Railroad; valued at about $780,
900; probably insured.
The almost nude lady and gentlemen |
passengers were provided as well as pos
sible with raiment at Fitzgerald's Land
ing, and, together with officers in COM
mand of the heroic Pilot Lapham, spent |
the afternoon in the city and left by the
night train for their respective homes, |
the officers going to Columbus, Ca This
Is the most shocking river disaster for
years, since the explosion of the Confed-
crate gun-boat near FG. Gaines, when
eighteen lives were lost.
Arrested ON Suspicion.