The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-24

Burkett home, may wonder but those
who have lived in Wheeling long know
we'll Young Plummer is one of two
children whom Jesse Burkett saved al
the risk of his own life almost II
years ago. In the home of John CLARK
of Louisville KY, another young mar
of 20 thanks the brave Wheeling lac
for saving his life, while in Wheel
ing cemetery lie the remains of a thirt
child, which Burkett tried but failed
to save.
So long as base ball should be talked
of in Wheeling, so long will Jesse Bur
kett be kindly spoken Of but long af-
after the great left-hand batter shall
have passed away, the people of the
Ohio valley will tell and retell the
! thrilling story of Jesse saving two
| children from the river flood and al
most losing his life in an effort to save
the third.
In the spring Of 1884 Burkett, a mere
stripping, was working in one of the
| Wheeling mills. His home was or
what is known as THE Island" A
great portion of the city is now built
there.
Around the corner from Mrs. Bur
kett, on Virginia street, lives the family
of w. F. Plummer, the leading photog-
rapher of the city. John Clark, who
had bright little four year-oId girl
and boy about two years her senior,
lived in the house adjoining. AS Jesse
came home from the mill one evening,
he ran into large crowd on the bank
back of his mothers house. The river
was flowing swift and strong, full of
running ice, and it was bitter cold Bur
kett, who knew the treacherous Ohio
banks, warned the crowd to keep back,
but he was not needed.
The young iron worker passed on into
his mothers house, stopped to chat
with her moment, then passed into
the back Kitchen where he threw off
his shoes and drew off his heavy fan
mel shirt, preparatory to washing
himself. He heard wild screams at
the back of the house In the quick
ly gathering darkness, he saw the big
crowd stir uneasily, and he knew the
worst had happened.
In a second he had thrown open the
back door, and with few bounds, had
cleared the back fence, alighting in the
one say that several children had
fallen into the river, and that was
enough.
Like a FASH the 1.-THE youngster
plunged into the swollen stream. How
he avoided striking the heavy ice cakes
is a mystery, but he disappeared as if
weighted with lead. In less than 10
seconds Burkett came uD, holding in
his left hand the apparently dead body
of the Plummer child, who was one of
the three who had gone in. A score Of
willing hands were reached out to take
the boy, and tossing him to safety, Bur-
kett went down again.
This time he was long coming up,
but when he did appear, he was quite
a distance down the current, but he
held second child, one of the Clark
tots. The brave young swimmer was
almost exhausted when this child was
taken from him, and to the horror of
the crowd, now increased to a thou
sand, he dove once more into the seeth-
ing flood, for he knew that the
little four ear-old girl of Mr.. Clark
was still in the icy waters.
Eagerly the great crowd watched in
the fast gathering gloom for the third
temperance of the boy but he did not
come up. The ice cakes grated and
smashed against each other, apparently
in fiendish glee, over the spot where
young Burkett had gone down. Slow
ly and sadly the crowd at last turned
away and went home, to mourn ana
tell the story of how little Jess. Bur-
kett had lost his own life trying to save
Mr. Clark's girl after saving two boys.
The boys rescued by Burkett were soon
brought to, and are now healthy young
citizens.
There was a terrible scene in the
house of Mrs. Burkett that evening.
She thought her loved son had been
drowned About o'clock some one
stepping into the back yard fell over
the half frozen and insensible form Of
young Burkett. He had dragged hirt-
self from the river at point far be-
low and had tottered back along the
bank. in the freezing weather, to fall
insensible almost on the back door
steps of his mothers home The brave
little rescuer was i'll for many weeks
after this. The body of the little girl
was found the next day." Jesse not on
ly refused to accept any favors of the
families whose little ones he had saved,
but has always refused to discuss the
life-saving episode, for which, accord
ing to many, he should be wearing a
diamond studded medal. w. r. Plum
mer, whose boy was saved, committed