The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1920-04-19
BOY DROWNED
WHILE FISHING
in BLACK RIVER
Orleans Lad Loses Life In
Waters Near
Coventry

There was strong possibility to-
day that the Black River, half way
between Coventry and Orleans,
would be dynamited in an effort to
locate the body of Leon Regan, who
is believed to have been drowned in
that stretch of water Saturday after
noon EffortSto locate the body have
been continuous since the accident
happened on Saturday and the vi
has been dragged from one end to the
other without success. A large crew
of workmcn, under the leadership of
B. S. Curtis, were busy all day today
with graphing irons but their efforts
up to the present have been futile.
Conflicting stories as to just how
the Regan boy met his death have
been told by Everett Hall and Napo-
leon Chalifoux, two chums who
were with him when he was drowned.
The three boys had left their homes
about II o'clock to go ishin~ in the
Black river, about two miles away and
it was less than two hours later that
young Regan was drowned. Question
ers found it almost impossible to get
anything out of the Chalifoux boy,
but the mother of young Hall sue
ceeded in getting her son to talk, but
the boy failed TO tell the same story
twice. His first story was to the ef-
feet that the three boys were stand
ing on the bridge which crosses the
Black river when he (young HalD in
vited the other two boys to go fish
ing in nearby brook. Chalifoux and
himself, he said, started for the
smaller body of water and supposed
that young Regan was following and
that the first time they knew he was
in trouble was when he heard the
Rcgan lad call for help. Napoleon
and | ran back to the river he
said "and did what we could to save
Leon, but we were unable to be of
much help. We got some logs and
pushed them into the water and Leon
got hold of one of them and held on
for a moment but the current was too
swift that it carried him down the
stream"
When the two boys found they
could not do anything for their com
panion, young Hall ran over into the
nearby woods, where Preston Skinner
of Orleans was trapping and told hlm
that little Leon had fallen into the
water. Skinner rushed over to the
scene but the boy had evidently
gone down for the third time as Skin
ner failed to find any trace of the
body. Another story related by
young Hall indicated that the three
boys were walking along the bridge
when a plank on which young Regan
was standing, gave way and carried
the little fellow into the river, where
he was drowned. Still another story
told was to the effect taht the boys
were fishing in the brook when Re
gan tumbed into the water and failed
to come up. The first story is believ-
ed to be the most logical and is the
one on which the authorities are
working.
The scene of the drowning is just
below the farmhouse Of Alfred
Brown. A large crowd gathered on
Saturday afternoon and a much
larger number of people journeyed
to the scene on Sunday. Men work
ed until long after dark Saturday try
ing to locate the body and then kept
busy dragging the river all day Sun
day but found no trace of the body.
Ezra Taylor of Orleans telephoned
Saturday night to Mrs. Siminon Of
(CopfipuoJ IN mana SA