The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-07-25
THEIR AWFUL DEATH
Four Beautiful Women Drown
ed Near Caldwell
IN RESCUING ACOMPANION
Gloom and Sorrow EnShrondS
the Whole City.
IN RESCUING ACOMPANlON

At Dr1ry, q summer resort near Cald
well. yesterday, the most appalling AM
heart-rending accident Of the present yea
In this section Of the country occurred
-Four young women were drowned in I
most cruel manner. Thew were:
LmLT DERRICK, IT years old, siste'
of I'd DetrIck, manager Of DERRICK Gro
Gerry company, Wichita, and a niece O
Captain John c. 1Aghtner. So North Main
wichita
EDNA CURTIS, aged II. daughter o.
Reverend w. W. Curtis pastor Of the
PresbyterIan church at Caldwell recently
transferred from FL Dorado.
INEZ MEAL, aged ls, daughter OF Colo
mel T. E. Neal, a prominent real estat'
man Of Caldwell.
MABEL NEAL, aged Is. daughter Of
Colonel Neal
Miss Edna Baton, for whom all tbs
other girls lost their lives IN an effort
to rescue her. WIN recover. She was un'
conscious when rescued, but was brought
to by manipulation. She q a sister Of Mr.
Baton Of the Hockaday Hardware com
pany.
AS nearly as the accident could be told
over long distance telephone, it was this
way:
Miss Edna Baton. sister OF Mr..
Baton who works In Wichita for the
Hockaday Hardware company. was wad-
ing In a shallow stretch Of water with the
four other girls. All at once she stepped
into q deep hole near the bank and went
under. She could not swim and when she
came up began to call for help. Miss
Curtis jumped in TO her rescue and both
Of them went down. Ali three OF the
other girls then sprang into the deep
place and attempted to save the first
two. They were calling for help. but got
strangled and all went down. Mrs. DR..
Robinson Of Caldwell, who was chaper-
oning the party, ran to the bank and by
some means succeeded in rescuing Miss
Baton. but the other four who went to
help her were drowned. Their bodies
sank to the bottom and Mrs. Robinson
had TO 60 a mile to where same boys
were camping on the river and get them
TO go and dive for the bodies. The last
corpse was not out on the land for nearly
an hour after the struggle began in the
water. II Isl understood that the party
had gone out there early Monday and
had hardly had their camp arranged
when the accident occurred. When the
news reached Caldwell the town was
Wild The stores were closed and prob
ably 800 people drove out to the river.
A blacker shadow Of sorroT proba bly,
never swept sdoWn on a little city than
that which ehshrouded Caldwell when the
awful news reached there. Stores were
shut up by the score and a regular caval-
cade set out for Drury where the appaH-
ing thing had occurred. Men talked in
whispers OF the struggle the brave girls
had made They were known to many
people. They had been seen full of life
and happiness but a short time before.
The report that they all lay stark and
lifeless at the bottom OF the pond seemed
difficult TO believe. A gentleman who came
never s.en a community so completely
sorrOw-stricken- THE dreams of nearly
all the citizens there tonight" he said.
will be filed with the despairing cries
OF those young women. in their struggle
against the water. Little children and
grown men listened with the same awe
to the story Of how they died. and how
the brightness Of Joy and youth was
snuffed out 80 suddenly and so cruelty.
The thing seemed to increase in ghast-
illness when the citizens remembered that
one instant the young women were at the
height OF a frolic the next minute in
the embrace Of a black despair and a
blacker death"