Linn County IA Archives News.....Matt. Williams Drowned May 29, 1903
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Ken Wright wright@prestontel.com July 30, 2013, 8:24 am

Cascade Pioneer May 29, 1903


    Cascade Pioneer, May 29, 1903

    MATT. WILLIAMS DROWNED
    Garry Owen Farmer Drives Through Dry Run Swollen By Flood.

    Matt. Williams, one of the best known farmers of Garry Owen, met death by
drowning in a sudden and singular manner Tuesday evening about 6 o'clock near
his home while returning from trading in Cascade. During the afternoon he came
to town with his daughter, Miss Nellie, and niece, aged about fourteen, driving
a team attached to a top buggy. They left for home late in the afternoon, and
when they reached a point near Mr. Williams' home where the road crosses a dry
run, discovered it swollen with the flood caused by tho heavy rain that
prevailed between 5 and 6 o'clock. The road crosses the run diagonally. Just as
he reached the brink, Tim O'Connell, who works for John Williams, brother of the
unfortunate man, hailed him and warned him not to cross just then, but to wait a
little while until the flood subsided. The rain had ceased and suggested that
the water would probably fall rapidly. Mr. Williams, having crossed the run many
times before under similar conditions, did not anticipate any trouble concluded
not to wait. The warning of O'Connell raised tho fears of the daughter and niece
and they jumped out of the buggy as the horses stepped into the flood, and only
received a slight wetting, Mr. Williams drove on and when about half way over
one of the horses floundered and fell. This swung the buggy suddenly to one side
and in an instant horses and man were rolling in the swift current of the flood.
Just how Mr. Williams was caught so that he was unable to extricate himself will
never be known, so suddenly was the watery tragedy enacted. It is the general
opinion that the buggy was turned over upon him and hold him beneath the surface
as the outfit drifted swiftly down stream. About two hundred rods from the
crossing the team was caught and guided out by Mr. O'Connell and Ed. Leonard,
another neighbor who were astounded when they failed to find Mr. Williams with
the buggy and horses, and after a hurried search some fifty rods farther down
they found Williams' body and as speedily as possible got it ashore. With the
best means and knowledge at their command they endeavored to resuscitate him but
their efforts were futile. His form was lifeless. A physician summoned as soon
as possible expressed the opinion that life was doubtless extinct before he was
taken from the water. His head, shoulders and arms were badly bruised. He may
have been kicked by the horses in their mad struggle in the water or pounded by
the overturning buggy and stunned, all of which may account for his failure to
extricate himself. Tho dry run forms a branch of the gully that drains a large
territory and during heavy rain falls is usually swollen to great depth and runs
with the rapidity of a millrace. In dry weather it contains no water whatever.
The shocking accident casts a deep gloom over the Garry Owen neighborhood, for
Mr. Williams was a very popular man. He was 58 years old and was born in Garry
Owen. He was married to Hannah Noonan, sister of P. C. Noonan, who with three
children, Misses Nellie and Lizzie, and John, survive him. Two children, Patrick
and Mollie, are dead. He leaves two brothers, John of Garry Owen, and Robert
Williams of Idaho, and two sisters, Mrs. Charles McCarthy of Garry Owen, and
Mrs. M. Keneally of Dubuque. The funeral was hold Thursday morning at 10 o'clock
at St. Patrick's church, Rev. J. Kelly officiating. 



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