The Saint Paul globe., 1900-11-30
SAD NEWS CANE INSTEAD
SAILORS WIFE WAITED HIS COM
ING FOR THE THANXSGIV-
ING FEAST
SANK WITH MAUMEE VALLEY
Dodge County Girl Who Married a
Mate Is Now Left
Widow at Chi
CagO

CHICAGO. Nov 29-Death stayed
the Thanksgiving preparations in the
house of Mrs. William E. Smith.
4O2 West Chicago avenue. whose
sailor husband perished with his ship off
Toledo on Monday. The husband, who
was mate of the schooner Maumee Val
ley, was to have arrived in Chicago last
night for a Thanksgiving dinner today,
but the sad news instead greeted the anx-
ioux wife.
Mrs. Smith had not seen the dispatches
in the newspapers giving the account Of
the Maumee Valleys mishap. and the
= death of the crew. She was watching
from her window all of yesterday after
noon, and when she heard a step on the
stairway she flew to the door with a
greeting on her lips Instead of her hus-
band, she faced a messenger with the
details of the ships loss. Last night the
neighbors were caring for the bereaved
wife, who was prostrated by the blow.
AWAITED HIS COMING.
Smith was only thirty-ive years DID,
but he had followed a sailors life for
twenty-four years. He had been in To-
ledo, O, and Buffalo, N. Y, for three
months, sailing with his old captain, Hen
Ty Scranton, who had induced him to
leave Chicago In a letter received a
few Gays ago, Smith told his wife that
the Maumee Valley would arrive in To-
ledo last Sunday, and that he would be
homo on Wednesday afternoon or night
for q holiday. The couple, having no
children, were to have enjoyed q lands
mans Thanksgiving for two, and Mrs.
Smith had been engaged the entire week
in preparing delicacies against her hUs
bands return.
: According to the dispatches, the crew of
the Maumee Valley hung to the rigging
for three days until they dropped into
the Icy water from sheer starvation and
exposure. Smith had escaped from a
score of perils of similar rigor and was
one of the most daring lake sailors of
the younger generation.
CRUELTY OF DISCIPLINE.
He was born in Leland County, Mich,
q farmers son. but ran away from home
at the age of II. He shipped as an
ordinary seaman in those old days of
lake navigation which from the stern
ness and cruelty of discipline almost
equaled the regime of the salt water
press gangs. He was SCARED from head
to foot with the Delaying pin welded
by ferOcous and not always sober Off
GERS.
Smith saved many lives from wrecks
and twice before he was nearly starved
while perched on the rigging Of a dis
case of the Maumee Valley. On another
occasion he swan three miles to land in
the terrific storm which wrecked the
Edith L. off Mackinac Island in 1881.
All OF the crew but Smith were lost
MET ABOARD A SHIP.
1t was aboard a schooner that the mate
met the young woman who became his
wife. She was Miss Emma Warren,
daughter Of a farmer in Dodge County.
Mimi, who had left home in 1890 to visit
relatives in Chicago. The girl, then 20
A, years of age was in poor health, and
her father procured her passage on a
sailing vessel, that long lake trip might
restore her spirits.
- There she became acquainted with First
Mate William Smith, whose reputation
Nor bravery in saving a boy from drown
Ing in the Duluth, Mimi, harbor was
then in the ascendant Two weeks after
reaching Chicago they were married AT
the solicitation of his wife Smith gave
up sailing for a time, but he drifted back
to it from love of the life. He was
member of the Seamen's union, which is
taking measures to search for the body
RnG conduct the funeral