Payette County ID Archives Obituaries.....Winn, Donald & Hugh 1908
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Cheryl Hanson ihansonb@fmtc.com December 5, 2005, 9:02 pm

Payette Independent 1-31-1908
Payette Independent
Payette, Idaho
Friday, January 31, 1908

TWO LITTLE BOYS LOSE THEIR LIVES IN A SLOUGH

Donald and Hugh Winn, Aged 10 and 8 years, Are Drowned in a Shallow Pond - 
Hugh Loses His Life While Attempting to Save the Life of His Brother.

One of the saddest accidents that have occurred in the history of Payette and 
which shocked the hearts of friends and strangers when they heard of it was 
the drowning of two young sons of Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Winn on Captain Henry 
Ervin’s place a mile and a half south of Payette last Saturday afternoon. The 
boys were but eight and ten years of age and were drowned in a slough less 
than six feet deep and not more than 10 feet across.

The accident was unusually sad in that the mother of the boys was lying ill 
expecting soon to give birth to a child and for the sake of the babe soon to 
be born, was not permitted to see her sons whose lives had passed to their 
maker. The bodies were laid away unseen by the mother’s eyes and when the same 
day, she gave birth to a bouncing boy of 10 pounds joy and grief were mingled 
in the mother’s breast.

Shortly after noon on Saturday Mr. Winn sent the two boys, Donald and Hugh, 
across a field on an errand. Light-hearted, happy, full of life and free from 
care, they left their father and it seems attempted to make a short cut across 
the field by crossing a slough which was covered with a thin layer of ice.

From all appearances it is evident that Donald, the older of the two, 
attempted to cross first and broke though the ice and into the water. His 
younger brother jerked off his coat and cap and with the aid of a willow hook 
attempted to rescue him and met a like fate.

The boys were discovered by a Japanese who, without waiting to attempt a 
rescue, ran to Mr. Winn’s house nearly a mile away and told him that he 
believed his boys were in the slough. The two rushed back to the place and the 
moment Mr. Winn saw the coat and cap from a distance he knew the victims were 
his sons.

He rushed into the water, which was up to his neck, and carried the boys to 
the bank and friends assisted in taking them to his home. Donald was standing 
almost upright in the water.

Dr. Avey was summoned as quickly as possible and he and J. S. Thurston worked 
over the prostrate forms for an hour, doing everything in the power of man to 
revive respiration, but their efforts were unavailing.

With the passing of Donald and Hugh Winn, two beautiful young lives have 
passed into eternity, and although taken in their early youth the world cannot 
but be better for their having lived in it. For the last three years the 
family have resided on Captain Ervin’s place. The little fellows by their 
bright and endearing ways had won the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Ervin, from whose 
home the funeral services were held Sunday afternoon under the auspices of the 
Christian Scientists, whose ceremony was very beautiful and impressive. Mrs. 
J. B. Burns furnished music.

A large number of the friends of the boys and the family followed the two 
hearses as they proceeded from the residence to Riverside cemetery, where the 
bodies were laid to rest. The pallbearers were chosen from among the boys’ 
school mates, they having been pupils in the Payette school, and were the 
following: Phillip Rieger, Emmett Fitzgerald, Frank Wilburn, Clyde Sherwood, 
Clarence Coats, George Fields, Louis Falkenstein and Lloyd Brundage.

Additional Comments:
Note: According to their headstone, Hugh E. Winn was born 1900 and died 1908. 
Donald D. Winn was born 1898 and died 1908. ch

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