Obit of Smith, children - Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Wanda Purcell 23 Oct 2005 Return to Roger Mills County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogermills/rogermills.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.html ========================================================================== Surnames: Smith, Kerns, Burns, Cook, Wallace, Tedrowe, Cope, Elliott Originally posted at: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5YB.2ACE/6316 Last Thursday evening of last week, the mail hack from Sayre, carrying seven passengers was overturned by high water in the creek just south of town, and three children of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Smith of Delague, Colorado were drowned. A flood of rain fell here the afternoon and the little stream was raging. The hack, carrying Mrs. James Kerns and baby, Mrs. Ed Smith and three children and Mrs. Fred Burns paused at the top of the steep; hill just beyond the creek, some 100 yards from the stream, to investigate. It was still raining and the creek didn't look so bad from the point and the driver, one Mr. Cook, a new man on the line, not knowing the depth of the stream started down the hill. As they approached the streaam, they all became alarmed and the driver locked the wheels and tried to stop, but the horses could not hold the hack on the steep road and all were plunged into the raging current. The top being up, the hack immediately turned over, washing them all out into the deep water. Sebe Wallace and Johnny Tedrowe saw the accident and rushed to town to spread the alarm. The whole town turned out and went to the resuce as fast as they could run on foot and on horseback, but it must have been 10 or 15 minutes before anyone arrived to help. They found the driver clinging to the top of a tree in the stream, holding on to Mrs. Kerns and her baby. They were rescued and sent to town Mrs. Ed Smith was found clinging to the limbs of another tree lower down, and least 100 yards below the crossing. Her baby had been violently wretched from her arms and she was almost drowned when rescued. Mrs. Burns had succeeded in reaching land by her own efforts, though much bruised by striking something in the swift descent. It was nearly an hour before any of the children were found and it was thought she had a little life at first. The boy about 8 a.m. Friday. Deputy Sheriff C .H. Cope was at the county seat last Thursday on official business and he in company with Sheriff Elliott was among the first to reach the scene of the mail hack accident and gave assistance in rescuing Mrs. Kerna after her infant child from their perilous position. The whole town was plunged into the deepest gloom by this heartrending accident and Mrs. Smith, who lost all her children, has the profoundest sympathy of the whole community. Mr. Smith was wired but could not arrive before the children were buried at Cheyenne Cemetery, Cheyenne, Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Saturday. Nearly all the mail was lost in the same accident, the hack was completely wrecked and one of the horses was drowned. Cheyenne Sunbeam, Cheyenne, Ok 22-Sep-1905 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Roger Mills Archives http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogermills/rogermills.html