Connecticut western news., 1914-07-23
DROWNED WHILE
 BATHING IN RIVER


 NELSON A. BROWN GOES TO HIS
 DEATH IN 20 FEET OF WATER Country Round About Searched for
 24 Hours Before Victims Clothes /, and Bicycle Were Found on River
 Bank-Professional Diver Brings
 Up Body After AIl-Night Dragging
 Had Failed to Locate It. .4
 Nelson Arlington Brown, aged IS, son of Frank N. and Ella Stewart Brown, of New York formerly of Can aan, was drowned in the Housatonic river, Saturday afternoon. The circum- stances of his disappearance, his pro- longed absence, the uncertainty as to his whereabouts and the trae ic and sen- sational events leading up to the recov- cry of the body by professional deep water divers, constitute a pathetic se- quence of events that have stirred the sympathetic heart of the community as it had not been stirred before.
 The boy had been spending a few days with his aunt, Mrs. E. R. Lorrain, and planned to return to New York last Sunday afternoon As had been his practice every day during his stay here, he started out on his bicycle Saturday afternoon, just after dinner, for ride about the suburbs of the town, but did Tot tell his amt where he intended to go, even if he had definite destina- tion in mind He rode north through Railroad street and was seen by several persons who knew him, between the village and Benedict's corner.
 As he did not return at supper time, the LOrrains became anxious and as the evening grew late they became alarmed, and notified some of tire neighboIs of the boys strange absence, as they were sure, by that time that something ser ious must have happened to him.
 J. Henry Rorapaok, with his chauf- feur, Len Caldwell, and Harry Holt started out at about 10:30, in his auto mobile. to institute search. He drove first to Elisha Benedict's to investigate a story that his sons, Roy~and Vernon had seen the boy riding past their house up the Clayton road, late in the after noon, and that Roy had mounted his own wheel and ridden along with him, as far as Hiram Millers corner, above the old Barnes lime kilns, where they separated and the Benedict boy returned without observing which direction the Brown boy took om the corner.
 MT. Roraback awoke several residents of Rood street, in the middle of the night, but none of them had seen any such boy during the afternoon nor even- ing.
 After several hours of fruitless search ing and inquiry, the auto returned to Canaan, and at an early hour Sunday morning general alarm was sent out Practically every able-bodied man and boy in the town was notified from The News office that thorough securing of the hills, lots and streams was to be un- dertsken, and before g o'clock there were parties searching and inquiring on every road leading through and out ot Canaan, and officials of other towns
 
 ed to be on the watch for the missing boy The various posses reported to The News office, as they returned, where MT. Parsons remained all day, keeping the telephone busy, while MT. Roraback directed the movements of the search. CTS. A dozen or more automobiles were kept on the roads, until about , o'clock in the afternoon when it was decided to concentrate the search in the vicinity of the spot whence the last definite tid ings of the lost boy had come-the Mil Ter corner. All the automobiles and men repaired to that spot, and with 8 detail map before him MT. sRoraback assigned the various parties to the diff. ferent sections of territory to cover, em bracing radius of several miles from the corner, from the western base o1 Rattlesnake Hill to East Canaan, Had sell street and Mill River
 The search was thorough, but fruit. less, and that clue was for the time abandoned. The parties returned tc The News office to determine what course to pursue next. There was no end to the theories advanced by the talkative volunteer detectives, which ranged all the way from kidnapping tc murder. While the plans were still in chaos, word was telephoned in from West Main street that early in the fore. noon Jacob Schamerhorn, who had heard nothing about the boy being lost, had been out walking along the river bank, between Fred Gillette's and the Ashley Falls line, with his dog, when the dog which had run along ahead of him be- gan barking. Jake, supposing the dog had run down woodchuck, went to the spot and found that what had attracted the dog's attention was bicycle, lying on the edge of the brush near the stream Jake's first thought was that somebody had stolen the wheel and hidden ii there. He left the bicycle and con. tinued his walk. In the afternoon Jake and his wife together walked over the same ground and he pointed the wheel out to her. On their return home they learned for the first time that the