1887 – Boating Accident – 6 Drowned
“ ‘A Body found on the Beach! Four Persons Drowned! A whole family gone!’ Such were the words which were passed from mouth to mouth yesterday morning.”
“Six Persons Drowned : Terrible End of a Queen’s Birthday Boating Party.”
Hamilton Weekly Times May 25 1887
It was an alarming telephone message received by both the Hamilton Police and the news room of the Hamilton Times during the morning after the Queen’s Birthday celebrations of 1887:
“The information was that the body of a woman, apparently 35 or 40 years old, well-dressed and wearing costly jewellery, had been found upon the Beach by Mr. J. Corey. The report was not long unconfirmed, for in a few minutes, a message was received that a whole family was lost, father, mother and three children being drowned. “
The TIMES reporter on duty learned that the body found was that of Mrs. Thompson, boat builder, 368 Hughson street north, and he immediately started off for that address:
“There was no one in the house, but after considerable knocking an old gentleman came out from the next house south and with apparent alarm asked, ‘Do you want Mr. Thompson? Do you know anything of him?’
The reporter tried to ascertain as much information as possible:
“In reply to a question the old gentleman stated that Mr. Thompson had his wife and children out for a row on the Queen’s Birthday and had not returned.
“An old lady then came from the same house and said, ‘No, he didn’t come back and I’m afraid they are all drowned. Oh, my poor John, my only son John.’
The old gentleman stated that he was the father of John H. Thompson and that the old lady was John’s mother.
Old Mrs. Thompson stated that there were six in the group - her son, with his wife, his wife’s sister, Miss Vincent, his daughter Edith, aged 5, his daughter Jessie, aged between 3 and 4, and his baby boy, under 2 years of age. All had gone out in Mr. Thompson’s boat with the intention of spending the day at the Beach.
The man from the Times then started off for the Beach to further investigate :
“At John Dynes’ the statement was made that boating party arrived there early in the afternoon and stayed there until it was growing dark. There were in the party, Mr. & Mrs. Dynes thought, only five people – two children, one of them in arms – but Sammy Dynes said he had played with two little girls and had got a lunch for them. They started away from there between 7 and 8 o’clock, and Mr. Dynes thought, rowed towards the Beach.”
As the Dynes family was being interviewed the Chief of Police and Detective Campbell drove up. They were told to go over to the residence of well-known Beach fisherman Mr. Corey:
“In a skiff, drawn up on land in the shade of an elevated water tank lay the body of Mrs. Thompson. In the corpse could seen the traces of a fine-looking woman. She was dressed in maroon and black coloured dress and wore a gold ring, gold watch and chain and gold ornaments.
“Mr. J, Corey had started out from his house at about 4 o’clock in the morning, and is his custom after a gale, to look for driftwood. He was rowing slowly along, close to the shore in front of his own premises, when, in a clump of willows, he saw the body. It was floating upon the surface of the water and looked almost too life-like to be that of a dead woman. He took it in his boat and hauled it to the place where it would be sheltered from the sun.”
Corey then notified Mr. Hughes, who sent word to the police. At first no one could recognize who the dead woman was.
Upon the arrival of members of the Dynes family, that mystery was soon solved:
“Sammy Dynes thought it looked like Mrs. Thompson. ‘If it is her,’ he said, ‘ she will have a peach stone ornament upon her watch chain.’ The watch was taken from her pocket, and the peach ornament was there. Upon the left hand of the unfortunate woman was a cut as if done by being thrown against a branch of a tree or some sharp thing upon the shore. From her nose there oozed a drop of blood and at her mouth was froth like that which generally follows drowning. The body was carefully covered up to await the undertaker.
It was decided to take the body to the Ocean House:
“Mrs. Hughes was met on the road. She had in her hand a lady’s straw hat of a peculiar tint, and a satchel. Both were soaked with water. She said that her nephew had found the boat upon the beach in rear of Mr. R. M. Wanzer’s house. Thither the party went and found a row boat about 18 or 20 feet long, tied up to a breakwater. It was half full of sand and was stamped ‘J. H. Thompson, boat builder, 368 Hughson street north, Hamilton, Canada; in several places.”
Two men said had seen the Thompson group out on the bay as they left the Dynes’ place shortly after seven o’clock :
“The party then appeared to be making for home. The supposition is that they got a couple of miles out when the wind came up and a gale from the northwest began to blow. Mr. Thompson was an expert boatman, but with a heavy wind, two women and three little children in the boat, it is likely he could do nothing. The wind blew so fiercely that it broke a door in Mr. Dynes’ house, and in the face of such a wind few men could row a load of frightened women and children. He may have tried to turn his boat so as to return home, or the wind may have turned it broadside to the waves, but the probabilities are that it filled and went down, and thus six souls passed away.”
A search was made along the shore for other bodies, but none could be found :
“Those who have lived along the Beach for years and have seen many drownings say there is nothing strange in the fact that Mrs. Thompson’s body floated while the oysters sank. Preparations for the work of dragging for the bodies was commenced as soon as the body of Mrs. Thompson was brought by the undertaker to this city.”
Thomson was a man of about 40 years of age. Miss Vincent, his sister-in-law, had been visiting her family in Hamilton only a short time. She came from near Bracebridge, in Muskoka, her post office address being Uffington, Muskoka, she was quite a young woman.
Soon an oar, a seat and a child’s hat were washed ashore. However the search for the rest of the remains of the drowning victims proved to be much harder.
1887 – Boating Accident – 6 Drowned
“ ‘A Body found on the Beach! Four Persons Drowned! A whole family gone!’ Such were the words which were passed from mouth to mouth yesterday morning.”
“Six Persons Drowned : Terrible End of a Queen’s Birthday Boating Party.”
Hamilton Weekly Times May 25 1887
It was an alarming telephone message received by both the Hamilton Police and the news room of the Hamilton Times during the morning after the Queen’s Birthday celebrations of 1887:
“The information was that the body of a woman, apparently 35 or 40 years old, well-dressed and wearing costly jewellery, had been found upon the Beach by Mr. J. Corey. The report was not long unconfirmed, for in a few minutes, a message was received that a whole family was lost, father, mother and three children being drowned. “
The TIMES reporter on duty learned that the body found was that of Mrs. Thompson, boat builder, 368 Hughson street north, and he immediately started off for that address:
“There was no one in the house, but after considerable knocking an old gentleman came out from the next house south and with apparent alarm asked, ‘Do you want Mr. Thompson? Do you know anything of him?’
The reporter tried to ascertain as much information as possible:
“In reply to a question the old gentleman stated that Mr. Thompson had his wife and children out for a row on the Queen’s Birthday and had not returned.
“An old lady then came from the same house and said, ‘No, he didn’t come back and I’m afraid they are all drowned. Oh, my poor John, my only son John.’
The old gentleman stated that he was the father of John H. Thompson and that the old lady was John’s mother.
Old Mrs. Thompson stated that there were six in the group - her son, with his wife, his wife’s sister, Miss Vincent, his daughter Edith, aged 5, his daughter Jessie, aged between 3 and 4, and his baby boy, under 2 years of age. All had gone out in Mr. Thompson’s boat with the intention of spending the day at the Beach.
The man from the Times then started off for the Beach to further investigate :
“At John Dynes’ the statement was made that boating party arrived there early in the afternoon and stayed there until it was growing dark. There were in the party, Mr. & Mrs. Dynes thought, only five people – two children, one of them in arms – but Sammy Dynes said he had played with two little girls and had got a lunch for them. They started away from there between 7 and 8 o’clock, and Mr. Dynes thought, rowed towards the Beach.”
As the Dynes family was being interviewed the Chief of Police and Detective Campbell drove up. They were told to go over to the residence of well-known Beach fisherman Mr. Corey:
“In a skiff, drawn up on land in the shade of an elevated water tank lay the body of Mrs. Thompson. In the corpse could seen the traces of a fine-looking woman. She was dressed in maroon and black coloured dress and wore a gold ring, gold watch and chain and gold ornaments.
“Mr. J, Corey had started out from his house at about 4 o’clock in the morning, and is his custom after a gale, to look for driftwood. He was rowing slowly along, close to the shore in front of his own premises, when, in a clump of willows, he saw the body. It was floating upon the surface of the water and looked almost too life-like to be that of a dead woman. He took it in his boat and hauled it to the place where it would be sheltered from the sun.”
Corey then notified Mr. Hughes, who sent word to the police. At first no one could recognize who the dead woman was.
Upon the arrival of members of the Dynes family, that mystery was soon solved:
“Sammy Dynes thought it looked like Mrs. Thompson. ‘If it is her,’ he said, ‘ she will have a peach stone ornament upon her watch chain.’ The watch was taken from her pocket, and the peach ornament was there. Upon the left hand of the unfortunate woman was a cut as if done by being thrown against a branch of a tree or some sharp thing upon the shore. From her nose there oozed a drop of blood and at her mouth was froth like that which generally follows drowning. The body was carefully covered up to await the undertaker.
It was decided to take the body to the Ocean House:
“Mrs. Hughes was met on the road. She had in her hand a lady’s straw hat of a peculiar tint, and a satchel. Both were soaked with water. She said that her nephew had found the boat upon the beach in rear of Mr. R. M. Wanzer’s house. Thither the party went and found a row boat about 18 or 20 feet long, tied up to a breakwater. It was half full of sand and was stamped ‘J. H. Thompson, boat builder, 368 Hughson street north, Hamilton, Canada; in several places.”
Two men said had seen the Thompson group out on the bay as they left the Dynes’ place shortly after seven o’clock :
“The party then appeared to be making for home. The supposition is that they got a couple of miles out when the wind came up and a gale from the northwest began to blow. Mr. Thompson was an expert boatman, but with a heavy wind, two women and three little children in the boat, it is likely he could do nothing. The wind blew so fiercely that it broke a door in Mr. Dynes’ house, and in the face of such a wind few men could row a load of frightened women and children. He may have tried to turn his boat so as to return home, or the wind may have turned it broadside to the waves, but the probabilities are that it filled and went down, and thus six souls passed away.”
A search was made along the shore for other bodies, but none could be found :
“Those who have lived along the Beach for years and have seen many drownings say there is nothing strange in the fact that Mrs. Thompson’s body floated while the oysters sank. Preparations for the work of dragging for the bodies was commenced as soon as the body of Mrs. Thompson was brought by the undertaker to this city.”
Thomson was a man of about 40 years of age. Miss Vincent, his sister-in-law, had been visiting her family in Hamilton only a short time. She came from near Bracebridge, in Muskoka, her post office address being Uffington, Muskoka, she was quite a young woman.
Soon an oar, a seat and a child’s hat were washed ashore. However the search for the rest of the remains of the drowning victims proved to be much harder.
