The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1908-10-07
DOUBLE DEATH
BY DROWNING
Rev. F. M. Hill and Wife
Were the Victims.
welded ONLY THREE DAYS
A Sudden Rise in the Chaplin
River EnguIfed Them
In a Sink Hole.

Chaplin, KY, Sept. 30.-Three days
ago when the Rev. F. NJ, Hill married
Miss Margaret Bellwopd, of Choppers,
Ky, at the Gait House in Louisville,
the sink hole in the Chaplin river,
near the Chaplin mills, two miles
south of this city, was parched dry
because of the long drouth. Yesterday
morning when the newly welded pair
left the city for their home this same
sink hole had been swollen by the
heavy rains of the night before. To
day this same deep place in the river
turned the honeymoon of the Rev. Mr..
Hill and his bride into double TRACE
dy. For thirty minutes its waters
swirled and eddied about them before
the bodies were recovered.
The drownings Of the Rev. Mr.. Hill
and his bride are as strange as any
ever recorded in Kentucky. The bay
mare which the Rev. Mr.. HILL accbm-
panied by Chis wife, drove down to the
hole was found about 4:30 O'Clock this
afternoon under ten feet of water, still
harnessed to the surrey in which sat
Mrs. Hill. Near at hand, tangled in
the reins, at the bottom of the deep
hole, was discovered the body of the
pastor. The wheels of the vehicle rest
ed on the sandy bed of the river.
The two deaths were palinly acct
dental. The Rev. Mr.. Hill drove his
horse to the edge of the hole to water
it. Either the animal became fright
ened while drinking and plunged into
the river or the bed of the river gave
way beneath her feet and she sank in,
drawing the surrey after her.
Cries were heard for a quarter Of
mile, although no one saw the acct
dent which ended in the two deaths
1t is not at all improbable that the
Rev. Mr.. Hill was on the bank when
the horse and surrey suddenly disap-
peared beneath the swollen waters of
the stream. 1t was the cries of man
that were heard by Gunday, negro
boy, and his nanny" After calling
for help the Rev. Mr.. Hill is thought
to have jumped into the river in an
effort TO drag his bride from the seat
of the submerged vehicle. Becoming
tangled in the reins, he never reached
his wife's side and was drowned in his
efforts to save her.
The Gunday boy ran to the edge Of
the river and saw what appeared to
be the top of a buggy and hat float
ing on the water. He then sent up
a call for aid. James and Robert
South erland and William Lawson hid
heard the first cries and were already
OH their way to the rivers bank. They
arrived shortly after tine negro boy.
They had seen the pastor and his bride
drive down to the waters edge. They
quickly guessed what had happened.
With the aid of skiffs these three
men padded out to the middle Of the
river. First one would dive and then
another, but only one dive WIS nee
essary to reveal the double tragedy.
In a few minutes the body Of the pas
tors bride was removed from the seat
of the surrey and carried to the sandy
bank in the skiff In another few
minutes the body of the pastor him
self had been recovered and was laid
alongside that Of his newly-wedded
wife AS soon as possible the bodies
were removed to Chaplin, to the hcme
of John l.. Hill, the Rev. Mr.. Hills
father.
The Rev. Mr.. Hill and his bride re-
turned home from Louisville yesterday
morning at 10 O'Clock. They had
been married in Louisville Saturday
night and remained at the Gait House
until Monday morning.
On arriving here at the home of his
father and mother the Rev. Mr.. Hill
and his bride spent the first day with
his relatives and townspeople. To-