Marshall County, OK - Newspaper Article - Boy Hero - http://files.usgwarchives.net/ok/marshall/newspaper/hero.txt --------------------------------- Copyright © 2000 by Ella Brown ellabbrown@email.msn.com This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. --------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: Madill Record Date Unknown ------------------------------------------------------------------ A BOY HERO STORY OF HEROISM TOLD BY AN OLD SUBSCRIBER Madill Record Date unknown Letter written to the Madill Record by our ggrandfather Col. Thomas Dorsey Taliaferro Madill, I.T., Nov. 1 (To The News) I herewith enclose an account of the rescue of a boy from drowning in Red River, I think the boy who performed the daring fact should have full credit for it, hence I ask that you publish it in your columns. I first subscribed for the Galveston News in 1888 and have been a constant reader of it and The Dallas News up to the present time. I heartily approve of and indorse the sturdy stand your paper has always taken on all issues affecting the public interests. Wishing the News the same abundant success in the future as it has had in the past, truly yours, T.D. Taliaferro To The News: On last Sunday morning while John Whiting and Frank Vaden Jr., both Grayson County boys, were assisting D.B. and W.N. Taliaferro in driving a herd of cattle across Red River at Henderson's Ferry from the Indian Territory to the Texas side they met with an exciting adventure that none who witnessed it will probably ever forget. At that point the river is some 300 yards wide, the water for some distance on the Indian Territory side is shallow and the bottom firm, but as you approach the Texas shore it deepens until it reaches a dept of fifteen feet. At the bank a strong and rapid current sweeps down the river on that side. So powerful is the rush of the waters that the strongest swimmer would find great difficulty in breasting it. The cattle had been crossed successfully. All the hands, with the exception of two boys, John and Frank, had entered the ferryboat to be ferried across the river. They mounted their horses and drove the loose horses belonging to the herd into the river, that they might swim across. This they did without trouble. At this point the two boys, instead of returning to their friends awaiting them on the boat, decided in boyish frolic, to swim the river on their horses. Frank was mounted on a large, powerful horse while John’s mount was a much smaller and weaker animal. John was in the lead and when his horse struck the rapid current he refused to swim and commenced sinking and rising, pawing the water with his fore feet. The boy, seeing the horse wouldn’t, decided to leave him, and with cool deliberation took a double hitch around the horn of his saddle with the lariat, threw himself into the water still holding to the rope. After a considerable struggle the horse was induced to swim to the shore, dragging young Whiting with him up the steep and slippery bank in a place of safety. In the meantime Frank had not fared so well. His horse, too, when he struck the current refused to swim and commenced sinking and rising, carrying his rider with him, who, seeing that the horse and himself were both in danger of drowning, left the saddle and grasped the horse by the tall, but the horse still refused to swim and continued sinking and rising carrying the boy with him, making it necessary for him to leave the horse and attempt to swim ashore. But, obstructed by the weight of his clothes and the rapid current, soon became exhausted. Realizing that it was impossible for him to swim out, he cried to two small boys, the only persons on the bank, to throw him a rope. They, having no rope, attempted to throw him their bridle reins, but failed to reach him, and the struggling boy, being by this time thoroughly exhausted abandoned the effort and sank to the bottom. John, who in the meantime had reached the shore, saw Frank sink for the third time and through exhausted himself, did not hesitate a moment, took a flying leap into the angry current. Seeing Frank’s hat floating on the water close to the place where he last disappeared, he supposed that it was on Frank’s head. With a few strokes he reached it and grasped only the empty hat. The boys unconscious form was lying on the bottom of the river, but the dauntless boy was not discouraged, but immediately dived to the bottom and, his hand coming in contact with Frank’s collar, he grasped it and raised his body to the surface and holding on to it with one hand and swimming with the other, he dragged it to the shore, up the slippery bank to a place of safety and, helpless and exhausted, sank to the side of the form, which he had just rescued from a watery grave. Thus by the interposition of a loving God both young lives had been saved and there had been enacted upon the banks of Red River a deed of gallantry which proved that John Whiting possessed a heart nerved with dauntless bravery and a soul attained to the most heroic impulses. In these days of wars and conflicts we are accustomed to read accounts of chivalrous acts of brace soldiers upon the battlefield. Soldiers, who, with the ardor of battle in their souls and the shouts of their comrades ringing in their ears, perform acts of daring which thrill all hearts with admiration, but the deed which I have just described required a nerve and a heroism of a higher order than those which are necessary to send a solider to the cannon’s mouth on the battle field. This boy had just narrowly escaped death himself into the mad current. He knew full well that if he left the bank on an errand of rescue the chances were ninety-nine in 100 he would never return to it alive. He knew too, that he could expect no human aid: that he must rely on his own strength, now nearly exhausted, upon his own brave spirit, upon his own indomitable will, and they never failed him for a moment. During the whole time the boys, were struggling in the water, three men, Mr. George Whiting, the father, Henry, the brother of John, and D.D.. Taliaferro, John’s brother-in-law, and Frank’s uncle stood on the ferryboat watching them in agony of terror. They were utterly powerless to aid the, utterly hopeless of ever seeing them again alive. Long before the ferryboat could cover one half the distance, the boys would either be safe or their drowned bodies floating down the river. At first their eyes were riveted on John. They had no doubt that Frank’s strong horse would carry him without trouble, and when they saw John’s horse drag him up the bank, with a sigh of relief, they turned to look for Frank, and to their horror, saw him sinking beneath the water sinking to what they believed to be certain death. They did not take into account the heroic boy who lay painting on the other side, no thought of abanding his drowning companion, entered his chivalrous mind. No, he would rescue him or sacrifice his own life in the attempt, and in the attempt, and he did rescue him with unparallel. The wave of joy that thrilled the hearts of those three men as they saw those two dripping forms emerge from the water and gain the shore my be imagined, but words, are powerless to describe it. With our whole hearts we honor this brave John Whiting and are proud to call him friend. T. D. Taliaferro Thomas Dorsey Taliaferro was D.B. Taliaferros father and LoRene Reirdons Grandfather. Submitted by Ella Byrd Reirdon Brown