The Ouachita Telegraph - Four People Drown

Date: Aug. 2000
Submitted by: Lora Peppers <lpeppers@ouachita.lib.la.us>

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The Ouachita Telegraph
Friday, September 21, 1877
Page 3, Column 1

Four People Drowned.
        Friday night last four colored people, living with Mr. Labaum 2 miles 
below town on the opposite side of the river, came to Monroe to preaching at
the colored Methodist church where there has been a protracted meeting going
on for several days.  Old man Henry Williams was the head of the party.  The
remaining three were his wife, Clarissa, Zella Scott and Hannah Brown.
Henry Williams, a freedman tells us, was not of very sound mind and not a
good post to lean against.  The party crossed the river to this side without
trouble and paid there devotions to the Lord according to the rites
prescribed in their church and, returning home, reached the river about 2
o’clock at night, and the four got into the boat, a small plank skiff.
        The boat leaked, it seems, and when they had nearly reached the shore on
the other side, the women became alarmed, as the boat was nearly full of
water.  At that point the river is about ten feet deep.  One after another
of the women jumped out of the skiff, the last one turning it over, and
throwing old Henry out.  There was a skiff just ahead with a man and two
women in it, but before it could land and answer the calls for help made by
the drowning people they had all disappeared.  Next day, Saturday, two of
the bodies were found by dragging, and two days afterward the other two came
to the surface of the water and were buried.  Coroner Surghnor visited the
scene, but declined to hold an inquest, because the manner and cause of the
death of the deceased was sufficiently apparent.

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