The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-11-02
BONES EXHUM'DBY SEARCHERS
EVIDENCE OF MANY WRECKS-HUMAN
BONES WASHED ASHORE
Quest For Capt. Jarvis and Unfor-
Grew Of Margaret A. May
Unsuccessful.

News and Courier.
After two-day search of the is
lands about Stono Inlet in an effort
to discover the bodies of Capt.
Eoward l.. Jarvis, of the schooner
Margaret A. May, and his two
brothers, who lost their lives when
their vessel was wrecked in the
great hurricane of ADJUST 81 and
rs, the Custom House launch Sum
ter returned to the city yesterday
afternoon. The members of the
party who conducted the search,
Messrs. G. ]. Cherry, J. J. Fleet
wood, Arnoldus Wander Horst and
Capt. Ralph McGee, of the schoon-
er Walton, returned with certain
evidence of the loss of the Margar-
ct A. May and holding the belief
that the two bodies recently wash
ed ashore and buried on Sea-
books island were not those of
Capt. Jarvis or any Of the men
who perished on that ill-fated YES
sci. The bodies were eXhumcd
by the search party, and the evil
dence failed to substantiate the re-
port that one of them was that of
the gallant and popular seaman,
whose many friends in Charleston
have never ceased to deplore his un-
timely death.
Two-Day Quest.
The search party left Charleston
on tuesday morning for Klawah in
the Government launch Sumter,
which had been kindly placed at
their disposal by Collector of the
Port E. w Durant, Jr. They ex-
pected to return to the city on
tuesday evening, but their quest
took longer time than they anti
cipated and they were compelled
to spend the night on the scene,
being well taken care of and most
Hospitality treated by Mr.. William
Andell and his family. They spent
tuesday and yesterday making
thorough search of all the beach
es and keys in the neighborhood of
Stono Inlet, in exhuming the two
bodies which had been found by
negroes and buried, and in exam
ining portions of wreckage cast
up here and there in widely separ-
ated localities in that region of
the coast.
Leg Bone i'm Fishers Net.
Bad weather hindered the search
ers, and they had a hard and siren
uous time of it. They found that
the reports that had reached the
city Of the two bodies found and
buried by the negro were correct.
A negro fisherman, casting his net
for mullet in a creek on Seabrook
Island, drew up out of the shallow
marginal water the leg bone of
man. He told others of his dis
covery. A great mass of dead
marsh grass and sedge on the edge
of the creek of that point was
burned and underneath it were
found two bodies badly decomposed.
A grave was dug and the bodies
buried together in the same cav
ity.
The search party was guided to
the place and at once exhumed the
bodies. These they found to have
been reduced by decay to a mere
jumbled mass of bones, with a lit
tie decomposed flesh hanging to
them, and the whole somewhat
lighted to remove the covering of
marsh grass. No trace of clothing
of any sort was found; and the
condition of the bodies was such
as to render Identification impos-
sible. Examination of the bones
disclosed the fact that one of the
men had been of small or medium
statue, while the other had been
Of rather large size.
NOT capt. Jarvis.
Mr.. Fleetwood, in telling the
story to a representative of The
News and Courier, stated that neith-
er he nor any other member of the
party believed that the remains
found were those of Capt. Jarvis or
any of his crew. The spot where
the bodies were found is more than
five miles distant from the nearest
fragment of wreckage from the
Margaret A. May, and more than IL
miles distant from the place where
the figureguard of the schooner
was discovered. 1t is believed that
the vessel capsized at sea in the
fury of the hurricane. Being load
ed with lumber, she did not sink,
but was blown in shore and cast
upon the beach of Kiawah Island.
The wreck of the schooner, with a
keel length of about $50 feet was
found bottom side up on the beach,
and it is believed that this is the
carcass of the gallant ship which
Capt. Jarvis sailed out of Charleston
just before the storm, in which he
was to lose his life. The beach was
patrolled for several miles and 9TH
er fragments of wreckage and a
lot of loose lumber were found, in
dictations being that the latter came
more from more than one vessel
since 1t was of different sizes and
kinds.
On information received from the
Hernandez family, on Coles Island,
the party visited Snake Island, and
there found the figurehead of a
schooner On the figurehead was
found the following description:
M. A. May" This would seem to
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that the schooner met her end eth
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