The Arvada enterprise., 1913-08-07
Sunday Tragedy (
at Cheesman Lake

on Sunday. 1t is a singular fact
that nearly all tragdies this year
have happened on or about Sun
day. At any rate he has been
notified each time at about two
O'Clock in the afternoon on Sun
day.
Last Sunday Mr.. and Mrs. Bur
ton were visiting friends in Boul-
der, and had plans for spending
the week making side trips in COM
pany with their friends. But a
drowning occurred at Cheesman
lake and Mr.. Burton was called
away from his hosts home to
journey more than a hundred miles
over mountain roads and rocks to
the scene.
Mr.. Chinn, his deputy, received
word Sunday afternoon and got
Chas. McFadden to drive him up.
They found a had road and at
one point reached an altitude of
5000 feet, the lake being about
1000.
Messrs Chinn and McFadden
and Mr.. Burton left the lake about
two o'clock Monday afternoon ar
irving home about nine clock.
They sent the body Of the
man who was drowned as far as
Buffalo and shipped it to Denver,
where it was met by Evans & Ben
nett's team with the ambulance.
At the time they left the body
of the boy had not been recovered.
The circumstances surrounding
the deaths were as follows:
Jacob F. Yockey, 36, farm
hand, who worked for John A.
Rockefellow of Lake George, and
Clarence RockefellOw, IA, and his
eleven year old brother Floyd,
went to the lake Saturday night to
fish. They were using throw lines
and would occasionally pull them
in. The bank of the lake is very
precipitious and rocky and the
lake very deep at the edge. Clar
ence, the only survivor Of the
party, relates that about Il o clock
they baited their hooks and laid
down for a nap. His little brother
was at his feet. At about two
o'clock in the morning he awoke
and both his brother and Yockey
were missing. He became alarmed
and climbed over the rocks to
where two other men were asleep,
and told them what had happened.
A lantern was found and IA search
revealed the boys hat in the
water. They waited till daylight
and then dropped some hooks into
the water and soon located the
man S body and succeeded in get
ting it out. A watch in his pocket
had stopped at ten minutes Of one,
indicting that this must have
been the time the man was drown
ed. The supposition is that Floyd
and the man had awakened and
gone to see about the lines and
that the little fellow slipped and
fell in and that Yockey jumped
in to save him, but was unable to
get him out on account of the
depth of the water and the steep
bank.
The lake is a large body of
water about eighteen miles in cir
conference and is the source Of
Denver water supply. The
drowning occurred about four
miles from the dam or outlet. The
lake is about 80 miles from Arvada
The Union Water Company
have palatial quarters there for
their employees, which was very
fortunate for the party of rescuerS.
The body Of the man was
brought to Burton 4 Chinn S un-
drrtaking establishment and pre-
pared for shipment to Canaldover,
Ohio. where Yockey has father
and other relatives. The shipment
was made Wednesday.
He was young man of good
repute according to all the evil
dence his death was that of a
hero, with no one near to bear
witness to the world.
The body Of the boy was re-
covered from the lake about noon
Tuesday. near the spot where
Yockcy's body was found, and IT
was taken to Colorado Springs for
buriaI. where his mother was at
fine time of the accident
Gordon Chef of Denver, was a
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