The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-05-12
WANCHESE YOUTH
AWARDED A MEDAL
FOR SAVING LIFE
Ben Midget Of Dare County. and
Edwin Richardson Of Hamlet
Win Carnegie Medals

The Carnegie Hero Fund Com
mission in Pittsburg Friday cited
two teen-aged North Carolina
schoolboys for performing heroic
deeds in 1860.
Each will receive bronze medal
and $500.
The young Tar Heels cited for
heroic acts are Benjamin L. Mid
gett, Is, of Wanchese, and G. Ed
win Richardson, 16, of Hamlet.
Midget saved David E. and Will
liam A. Batten, aged 8 and II, re-
spectively, from drowning at Mays
Head, June 6, 1860.
Richardson save two Army in
fantrymen from being killed by a
train at Hamlet, April 1, 1860.
Ben is the son of Mrs. Terrah
Daniels Midget and the late
George Washington Midget of
Wanchese. His father was once a
member of the Coast Guard. His
maternal grandfather was the late
Marcellus Daniels, and outstanding
citizen of Wanchese.
In recounting Midgett's heroic
act, the commission said the motor
boat in which the Batten boys were
riding was capsized by breakers in
Oregon Inlet 1900 feet from shore.
David Batten was thrown clear, but
William Batten, his parents, ano-
Their man and 4-year-old-boy were
trapped beneath the overturned
craft. William soon rose to the sur
face.
David and William, neither of
whom could swim, struggled to
stay afloat but were submerged
internationally by breakers three
or four feet high which carried
them away from the boat.
A charter craft on which Midg-
EFT was a deck hand moved into
the breakers, where the pilot idled
the craft. Fully clothed except for
shoes, Midget dived into the water,
swan 40 feet to David, and placed
one arm around him. David put
his arms around the neck of Midg-
EFT, who then towed him back to
the charter boat. Treading water
three feet from the crafts pro-
peller, Midget lifted David, and
a man in the boat pulled him
aboard. By then the other man who
had been in the overturned boat
had struggled from beneath it and
with difficulty held William at the
surface.
Midget swan 60 feet through
the breakers and took William
from the man. After towing Will
liam 40 feet, Midget became very
tired and his progress slowed. From
the charter craft man hurled a
rope. Midget grabbed the end and,
still supporting William, was
drawn to the boat. By then he was
too weak to raise William from the
water. A man in the boat pulled
William and then Midget aboard.
The parents of David and William
escaped from beneath the capsized
boat; and they and the other man
We're removed from the water. The
4-year-old boy drowned.
Young Richardson's deed had it's
setting at a railroad crossing at
Hamlet where a small sedan con-
tanning the two infantrymen stalled
on a track as a freight train APP
preached at % miles an hour.
| While the soldiers We're attemp-
ting to re-start the sedan, the train
rounded a curve, sounding horn
and bell.
AS the locomotive approached
at undiminished speed, Richardson
put his autobomible into gear and
knocked the stalled sedan clear.
But Richardson's car stopped. Rich
ardson put his engine in reverse,
leaped from the car, and ran from
the crossing. As he did so, the au-
tomobile move backward and just
cleared the path of the passing
train.