Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-06-08
RIVER HERO HAS
SAVED MANY LIVES
tBy Associated I'ress)

LOUISVILLE, ny, JulIc u ne
adv ent of a medal usually is an
event in the Great American
Home. Little Willie steals out
his big brothers Croix de Guerre
and is the hero OF the school :,
father makes his way to the
championship of the local golf
club and loses his vest buttons
when the president pins the gold
PLATED palm branches on his lap
el; sister Susie carries off first
honors in the high school essay
contest and the trophy shares
the place of honor in the family
museum with the silver spoon
Uncle George brought home
from the Worlds Fair.
But medals fail to hold unus-
lal interest for John J. Tully, OF
louisville, a follower of the riv-
-er for ffty-fve years and long
er. He has a chest full of mel
ais, SO one more or less doesn't
really matter to him.
Not that Captain" Tully's
medals do not mean anything
Rack of his collection of trophies
is story, a real life story of g.
chapters. Each chapter is con
ceIned with the saving frou
death in the river of somebody 5
father, or mother, sweetheart,
brother, husband or wife. For
Captain Tully has entered tx
arena with death and emerged
victor siXty-two times during hi.
career as a river man.
Today he sits in his little shc;
near the river and ties nets am
w'eaves hafilnocks and dreams
pcrchance OF the days wher
there were giants in the rivei
trade.
1t was in 1862 that Captain
FULLY began running his skif-
along the river. He was born toI
the river, he thinks, and has
been rescued himself on two oc-
caSlons, the time he drifted near
ly to the brink of the falls in ali
cren boat and again when he
was dragged from the current hy
tie ferryman's hook, caught il
the slack of his jacket. That was
long before he had tunlbled into
his teens.
For ten years after he hal
started in on the river, before
the United States Coast Guar
station was established, he lived
on the river front near the foot
of Fifth street. It was during
that period that he won most Of !
his medals.
His mementoes include one
from three shoenakers he saved |
in 1879; oars and star with the |
regards Of Charles Z. Collins aud |
John NJ. Hill, 1884; one from the
STATE of Kentucky, 1880, and the
fast class Congressional reward |
for heroic services in saving |
several persons from drowning, |
1874.
II a ledger, stiff and discolorcd I
with old glue, he has kept rhc
newspaper accounts Of his res !!
cues. Even his wife he saved
from the river, dragging her tot
safety on a pile of driftwood al /
Ter she had fallen from boat !
1':ring a storm. Sitting under
the awning of his back porch |
Captain Tully dreams of the /.
time when the lighthouse will De
tr:it above the falls. It wotiid .
serve not only to warn the down |
bound boats of the danger ahea /, |
he points out, but equipped with
a steam capstan, it would prof.
vide a means for drawing up
stream plying craft Graf past The I,
rapid water.
lie has been corresponding
with congressional representa-
ives and hopes that before lorg
] lighthouse shaft will rise and a
light house bell will toll across
the foggy sweep of water that
re has fought and loved for years
The State Highway Depart