Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-02-06

Han, Without Thought Of Self
Makes Unavailing Struggle
for Woman.


ed the river channel between the
cataract and the upper steel arch
bridge below the falls for the last
three weeks, broke from it's moor
ing at noon yesterday and went
down the river, taking with it to
their death man and woman be-
neved to be Mr.. and Mrs. Eldridge
Stanton of Toronto, and Burrell
Heacock, II years old, of Cleveland.
-Four other persons We're on the ice
at the time but managed to get
ashore in safety.
The bridge was considered safe.
For weeks the great fields of ice had
been coming down the river, piling
up against the barrier, until it was
from sixty to eighty feet thick and
under the influence of zero weather
the great mass had become firmly
anchored to the shore,
The jam was about 1000 feet in
length and in some places a quarter
Of a mile in breadth. For two weeks
1t had offered safe passage to the
hardy, and yesterday an immense
crowd of excursionistst came to view
the winter wonder of the river. Had
the accident happened an hour later
in the day hundreds would have lost
their lives, for the crowd was NOV
ing into Prospect park in the eleya-
tors that run down the cliff for the
purpose Of Iyenturing out upon the
ice. aas5 1874,
Somewhere deep in the great
whirlpool today sleeps the man. par
TALLY identified, as Eldridge Stanton.
who twice put aside chances OF res
cue in order to remain with his ter,
ror stricken wife and who, in the
shadow of death just, at the break
of the rapids, spurned assistance for
himself and, attempted to bind about
the woman's body agrope dangling,
from the lower steel arch bridge.
The lad, Burrell Heacock, was cast
in the same mound. Had he; not.
turned back on the ice to give as
sistance to the man, he too might
have made the shore.
On the bridge at the time 1t tore
free from the, shore besides these
three were Monroe Gilbert of this
city. Ignatus Roth of Cleveland,
Heacock's companion, William Hill,
an old river man, William Lablond,
a river man, and an unidentified
Italian, Hills shack was nearest to
the American shore. When he heard
the grinding and crashing OF the
ice. he ran at top speed toward the
Canadian shore calling to the others
to follow him. Lablond gave them
that safety lay in that d.
rection. Gilbert and the Italian fol-
lowed their lead, but the others be-
came confused BY the time they
had regained their composure the
bridge was moving fast down the
river.
The man and woman started first
towards the American shore, but
they were stopped by lane Of open
water. Back they ran again towards
he Canadian side, turned about and
made for the American side. When
hardly more than fifty yards from
he rocky shore the woman fell on
Ter face, utterly spent.
II can't go on; can't go on"
he cried. Let us die here"
All the time the great field Of
&c, driven onward by a southwest
ale and pressed by jam broken
rec from its anchorage near the
ase Of the Horseshoe fall, went on
roasting the terrible outrush of the
Niagara Falls Power company's tun-
ell outflow, the mightiest current (.
4 all the river, without being brok-
u. AS LILO NOudu lell lue udu
.roye to get her to her feet again
nd tried to drag her along the ice, 4
llling for assistance to Roth and
who were nearest.
Heacock turned back to the couple Z
nd helped support the woman. The t!
It cost him his life. Roth struggled II
ong over the hummocks of ice, get "
ng close to the open stretch of Il
alter at the Canadian end of the n
m. There were men Of the shore "
ady to give him assistance, Lab a
nd, Hill, William Cook and Super a
tendent Harry King Of the On :
rio Power company. They were
,tioned at the bottom of the cliff
the foot of East Wood street, Nj
ara Falls, Ont. Roth was afraid
trust himself in the icy waters.