Jackson County MsArchives News.....Creel, Elsie - drowned in Pascagoula River August 1906 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/ms/msfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Patricia Creel Kendrick http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00018.html#0004458 October 31, 2007, 10:29 pm The Biloxi Daily Herald Newspaper - Writer Not Listed August 1906 The Biloxi Daily Herald Newspaper - August 1906 - Writer Unknown SWEEP AWAY TO HER DEATH Miss Elsie Creel drowned in Pascagoula River Awakened from sleep and fell overboard-- Body not yet recovered The Biloxi Daily Herald Newspaper Posted in paper: Aug. 20, 1906 (Writer not listed on any of pages) Death, dark, swift and terrible came last Saturday night to Miss Elsie Creel, daughter of John Creel of this place, and in a moment claimed her for his own, literally snatching her from the presence of her father, mother, brother and sisters. Lying at one moment asleep on the deck of her father’s schooner, close to her nearest and dearest relatives, and the next moment plunged into the dark and swift waters of the Pascagoula, the young girl, scarce fourteen years of age was swept away to her death in the middle of the night without so much as aparting glance from anyone or time to give even a cry of alarm. All of yesterday her sorrowing father assisted by a large number of friends and volunteers searched the bed of the river in an attempt to locate the body of the girl who without doubt was carried away by the swift current and drowned. John Creel and his family with one or two friends were on a pleasure trip when the accident happened which changed what had been a day of happiness into a night of horror and grief. Mr. Creel is a fisherman and on Saturday morning about seven o’clock he and his family embarked on Mr. Creel’s schooner, the Katie R., and set sail for Dauphin Island, where they expected to visit for a day or two with some friends. On the boat were Mr. And Mrs., their three sons, Willie, Roland and Theodore, aged respectively twenty, eighteen and twelve; their daughter, Anita, ages sixteen, and Odile, aged ten, and the girl Elsie who was drowned. Beside the members of the family there were on board Morgan and Emma Sprinkle and Paul Voilvedich. The party was in no hurry to reach their destination, and as the end of the day approached, finding themselves at Scranton off the mouth of the Pascagoula River, they sailed up the river and anchored at the point about seventy-five feet from the east bank and directly opposite the light house, being about a quarter of a mile from the mouth of the river. This was about 5 o’clock Saturday evening. After the evening meal and later in the night arrangements were made to pass the night on board and the party lay down upon the deck and in the cabin. Elsie lay nearest to the bow of the boat which was toward the shore. At sometime between 11 and 12 o’clock the tug Laura, belonging to the Dantzler Lumber Company, came up the river and it is believed first whistled when two hundred yards from the Katy R. However this may be, when she reached a point directly opposite the stern of the schooner the engineer gave two short blasts of the whistle. Instantly all the sleepers on the deck of the schooners were awake, startled by the shrieks of the tug and frightened by her big hull looming in the darkness. Some of then were on their feet in a moment and Mrs. Creel heard a splash in the water, dull and heavy, as though someone had dropped the anchor overboard. She asked one of her daughters what it was or if some one had thrown some thing at the boat. There was some little confusion in the darkness on the boat’s deck and having recovered from their alarm, they were about to again lie down when one of the party asked where Elsie was. Her name was called but no one answered. She was not in the place where she had lain next to her sister Anita. Search was made for her in the cabin, but she was not there. Then they remembered the splash in the water and they knew the terrible truth. Elsie had gotten up in her fright at the shrieking whistle and in the confusion had fallen overboard, for the moment unnoticed. They looked over the side of the schooner, but the water there is full twenty feet deep and the current very strong. The child was gone and there was no hope. The rest of the night was spent in grief and despair and yesterday morning the mother and brother and sisters of the drowned girl returned to Biloxi. Her father remained at Scranton and search was begun for the body. Elsie Creel was a rather pretty girl with dark eyes and light brown hair and in her short life had won many friends. She attended the public schools here for a time, but last attended the School of the Sisters of Mercy. She lived with her parents near Back Bay about 300 yards to the south of the bridge on Cuevas Street. The Biloxi Daily Herald Newspaper Posted in paper: Aug. 21, 1906 (Writer not listed) SEARCHING FOR BODY Search for the body of Elsie Creel, the fourteen-year old girl who was drowned in the Pascagoula River Saturday night still continues, but up to three o’clock this afternoon there has been no result. This morning eight sticks of dynamite were exploded in the water near where the girl fell from her father’s schooner, in the hope that this would bring the body to the surface. John Creel, the girl’s sorrow stricken father, still works at his task trying to find the body of his dead daughter. Roland Creel, an older brother, is assisting him as are a dozen or more of relatives and friends of the family who have gone over from Biloxi, The river has been dredged again and again all about the spot where the schooner was moored and many yards down the stream. The mother and sisters are at home waiting for the sad news of the finding of the girl’s body. The Biloxi Daily Herald Newspaper Posted in paper: August 24, 1906 (Writer not listed) John Creel, the Biloxi fisherman, is still searching hopefully for the body of his daughter, which lies somewhere in the mouth of the Pascagoula River. Yesterday while dredging near where the girl fell from the schooner, one of the hooks brought to the surface a piece of pink cloth, a part of the girl’s shirt. Mr. Creel believes now that the body lies where it fell and that it is caught in some manner among the old piles which are thickly planted in the water at that point. He said that he would keep on with the dredging and would also, if possible, get an expert diver in Scranton to go down and search for the body. The place where the girl fell in the water, is to the east of the channel where the water is about nine feet deep. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ms/jackson/newspapers/creelels13nnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/msfiles/ File size: 7.0 Kb