The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-08-04
The Victims Were Allen and Leo
Whalen, Aged Seven and
Five Years.
Search for the Bodies Begun a
Few Moments After the
Accident.

A double drowning occurred in the
Minnesota river at $50 o'clock Friday
afternoon, at point about two or three
blocks below the bridge on the north
bank of the river. Two little boys
were swept down the current, strug-
Cling in vain in,their endeavor to escape
from the fatal embrace Of the waters
Allen and Leo Whalen, aged seven
and five years, went across the river
after dinner to go in bathing. They
were children of Mr.. and Mrs. D. ].
Whalen, proprietors of the Harper
House, on Main street. Other little
boys met them as they were going to
the river and they said that they were
going in swimming. None of the
others went, so that the two little fell
lows were alone, with no one anywhere
near on the moth side, although several
boys watched them from the south
bank.
Gustaf Eichhorn and Harry Monson
were among those who passed the lads
as they went toward the river, and
they continued to watch them as they
stripped off their clothing on the river
bank and waded in. They said to
Free Press reporter that the smaller of
the two Whalen boys went in ahead of
the older one and waded out upon
sand bar that projects out twenty or
thirty feet into the river. The little
fellow continued to walk out on this
bar until he was in the water, and then
he was seen to throw up his hands and
cry or call to his brother. He seemed
have walked off of a pitch off out
of his depth. His brother
ran out on the sandbar towards him,
but before reaching him he, too, was
helpless in the water, beyond his depth,
with his hands up, struggling to get out.
Both soon passed from view
A young man named Henry Klug-
hertz saw the drowning from a point
near the pump station. He stated to
the Free Press that he saw the two boys
wading in the water, and all at
once the smaller got beyond his depth,
and moment later the other was off
his feet in the water. The older boy
went to his little brothers rescue and
thus lost his life without reaching him.
Both very soon disappeared from view.
Those on the south bank were helpless to
render aid, as there was no time to
swim across even if they had been able
| to do so.
A telephone message was at once sent
from the pumping station to the city
hall and was received by Chief Bruels,
who Immediately sent men to the river
to aid in the search for the bodies. A
crowd soon gathered on both sides of
the river, and boats were procured and
graphing hooks and nets taken to the
place where the drowning occurred.
Among the first on the scene was the
distracted father of the boys. D. J,
Whalen, who had been informed of the
drowning He quickly found the two
little piles of clothing on the bank close
to the water, in plain sight of the east
bank, and recognized the clothing as
that wore by his little sons Mrs.
Whalen was nearly Frustrated by the
sad news.
The search for the remains was prose-
cuted with energy and many willing
hands aided. The current is dark and
rather sluggish at the point where the
drowning occurred, and it was not
thought that the bodies would 60 very
| far.
AS has been repeatedly stat
ed in the papers of the city
the river is serried with pitch
offs, worn out by treacherous and
contrary currents. It is a dangerous