Cherokee County GaArchives Obituaries.....Gray, Henry May 22, 1886
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Meredith Clapper http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002801 June 4, 2019, 11:51 pm

 The Cherokee Advance  28 May 1886 p 3
Negro Man Drowned
And a girl narrowly escapes the same fate in the Etowah River at the Franklin & 
McDonald Gold Mine, Ophir, last Saturday.

On Saturday last a sad and fatal drowning accident happened at Ophir, in this 
county.
About noon Henry Gray, a colored man who was making a crop on Mr. Van Hill's 
land, went to the Etowah river, at Moore's ferry, to cross, and the boats being 
all on the opposite side of the river, called to his 16-year old daughter, who 
happened to be thee to--
"Bring one of the boats over,"
which she undertook to do by holding on and pulling by the ferry rope.  The 
swift current was too strong for her and she was obliged to let go the rope, 
but before she could recover her balance she fell in the water, but succeeded 
in catching hold of and holding on to side of the boat.  Her horror stricken 
father called out to her--
"Hold on to the boat and I will save you."
Pulling off one shoe he plunged into the river, but, for some cause, in his 
great excitement, 
WAS DROWNED
before assistance could reach him.
In the meantime the imperilled (sic) girl was seen by Capt. R. H. Allen, 
Superintendent of the mill, a fourth of a mile away, who ran with all possible 
speed to her rescue.  She was near the opposite bank and RAPIDLY APPROACHING 
THE MILL DAM, the river now a rapid torrent and nearly out its banks; but the 
brave man never faltered, but pulling off his shoes plunged in and SAVED THE 
TERRIFIED GIRL who, while in imminent danger of drowning herself, had witnessed 
the drowning of her father in his attempt to save her. 
After about two hours dragging the body of Gray was recovered.
About one hundred people from the Mine gathered about the river bank to assit 
(sic) or look on the attempt to recover the body.




File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/cherokee/obits/g/gray15467ob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/

File size: 2.4 Kb