USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of Wisconsin from prehistoric to present periods : the story of the state interspersed with realistic and romantic events > Part 46
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"I asked some of the folks if there was any way of getting up the bank. Two men took hold of me and said they would haul me up the bank. I told them to let go ; that I was all right and could climb up the bank as well as they. There was a pathway up the bank and we soon reached the top of it. Then I went to a farm house, where there were about twenty of the survivors, and then we came home."
467
LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
How JOHN W. EVISTON CAME ASHORE.
(Narrative of f. W. Eviston, as published in the Milwaukee Sentinel. )
"The boat was brilliantly lighted and the sailors were on watch a few minutes before 2 o'clock on the morning of the 8th of September, 1860. When the collision occurred, my wife and I were in the gentlemen's cabin. We were both dressed. My brother Thomas met me a minute afterwards. I re- member, as if it were yesterday, the expression of his face as he said, with his stove-pipe hat drawn forward over his forehead, 'We are in a terrible fix. I was down looking at the hole in the steamer, and you could drive a span of horses through it.' The next minute we heard the captain say, 'All hands to the hurricane deck.' So, we all went there, and soon after the captain gave the order, 'All hands aft.' We thought then that we were near the shore, and that the order was given so as to beach the boat, but we afterwards learned that it was not so, and that we were at least seventeen miles off shore when we were struck. As we reached the hurricane deck I saw two spars lying there, and tied them together with our handkerchiefs. I felt the rocking motion of the boat as she went from side to side, and knew she was settling all the while. I took off my coat and tied one sleeve around the spars, and just as I was about to tie the other sleeve the boat sank. We went down fifteen or twenty feet with her, and then the upper works of the steamer parted, and we shot back to the surface. We came up together and were fortunate enough to see a stateroom door float- ing near us. We seized it and held on. We were in the midst of thunder, lightning and rain. The lake around us was strewn with wreckage, floating bodies, dead and dying, which we could only see when a flash of lightning came. The sounds of prayers and curses were heard on all sides. I recall one sad incident as illustrating the terrible tragedy. Out of the darkness we heard the voice of a mother showering terms of endearment on her child, who had become separated from her, and then the voice of the child calling for her mother, and saying, 'Mamma, I'se afraid of the water.' For three-quarters of an hour the voices were heard, then they were fainter and then died away.
" We hung on the door for an hour or two, and when it was near dawn, I saw something floating near us, and saw if we could get it, there was a chance for escape for us. I told my wife that I would try to get it, and did so, and found that it was the pilot house. I pushed it near to the door on which my wife was clinging, lifted my wife into it and got into it myself. We were up to our arms in water, but we had a rest for our feet, and I never felt so comfort- able in my life as I did at that moment. It was the same sensation that one experiences in sitting down in a rocking chair when one is very tired. I was so exhausted when we got the pilot house that I could not have held on to the door twenty minutes more.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
" We were no longer alone on the waste of water. Near us, within easy hailing distance, was a raft of collected wreckage forty of fifty feet long, in which was wedged a spar to which the pilot house was attached by a tarred rope an inch thick. On the raft were some young men with their hands in their pockets and some women in their night dresses.
"As it grew light we saw the shore line, with trees like sticks in the dis- tance. The young fellows on the raft shouted three cheers ' for light and land.' The wind blew very chilly, and every few minutes one of the women on the raft would be overcome by the weather and fall into the lake. Suddenly a member of the German band that was on board of the Lady Elgin came float- ing by. He said something in German which I do not remember, but I caught his arm and threw it over the spar so that he kept his head above water and worked his way to the raft, where the young men helped him up, but in a few minutes that part of the wreck on which he was standing gave way and he sank. Then a man seemed to rise out of the depths of the lake and was near at hand. I called to him to help himself, but he clasped his hands in prayer and sank out of sight. The lake around me was covered with floating apples, and a demijohn was noticed. The young men on the raft called to me to catch the demijohn and throw it to them. I caught it, took out the cork and smelled of it, and knew it was liquor. I advised them not to drink much of it, but I threw it on the raft, and they took a swig, corked it up and threw it away. I also threw them some of the apples, which they ate. I captured a cabbage and a small mattress, which I put behind us so that we would not be bruised against the woodwork. The cabbage I put between us to keep us from bruising each other, for the waves were very high and we were tumbled about at a great rate.
"The rope attaching us to the spar was a source of annoyance to us, and I asked the young men on the raft to lend me a knife and that I would return it, but they said they did not have any knife. So I got hold of the tarred rope with my teeth, under water, and chewed it till it separated. Our frail support sprang rapidly away from the raft. All the women had been lost before that, and all of the forty or fifty people that were on the raft at first who were left, were two young men. We never saw them again.
"All this time we were gradually nearing shore off Winnetka. In the afternoon we got into the breakers. The first one threw us forward sixty feet, it seemed; the second tumbled us over and over in the pilot house, and when this was repeated four or five times my wife became unconscious. I could see the crowd of people on top of the bluff, and I felt hard toward them because they took no steps to save us. As my wife became unconscious I gathered her in my arms and made a spring. I alighted in the water up to my chin with my feet on the sand. A young college student, named Spencer, who had a rope around his neck, came running down into the surf. I put my wife's body
469
LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
under my arm so that her head was held out of the water, and, catching his hand, we were drawn up high and dry. I carried my wife to the top of the bluff, and, as they took her away, I gave out and settled down on the ground.
"Mrs. Eviston was taken into a cabin near there, and, after they had worked at her for some time, the physicians pronounced her dead. Dr. Gore, of Chicago, brought her to life, however, by striking the bottom of her feet with a piece of pine, and thus starting the pulsation in her ankles.
" My brother, Thomas, was lost, and so was his wife. His body came ashore at Chicago harbor, and hers was found three weeks after. The body of a teacher in a Third ward school, named Mahoney, came ashore at the foot of Detroit street, the same street on which is located the school."
STATEMENT OF LIEUTENANT HARTSUFF.
(From the New York Illustrated News, September 22, 1860.)
" I was on board the Lady Elgin when she collided with the schooner Augusta, asleep in my berth; I immediately jumped from my berth, and saw the schooner floating away ; did not think any serious damage had been done at first, but soon discovered that the steamer was settling; I immediately left my berth, which was in the after-cabin, where I found Captain Wilson on the hurricane deck; I asked him if he thought there was any danger, and he replied that he thought she would float; he told me where there were life-preservers on the hurricane deck, and I went and passed them down to the passengers in the cabin, till they were about exhausted, when I took one myself and waited on the hurricane deck; while there, quite a number came on deck, only a few of whom were females, but how many came up I could not say, as it was very dark ; from a quarter to a half an hour after she was struck she broke up, the hurricane deck floated off, and the hulk going down with a tremendous noise ; as she broke, I jumped with a life-preserver-a board six or eight feet long and one wide-into the water, which was at this time only a few feet below us, and pulled with all my might to escape from the mass of the wreck ; after the con- fusion had somewhat subsided, I heard the voice of Captain Wilson cheering and encouraging the people on the wreck, telling them that the shore was but a few miles off, and, that if they kept calm and obeyed his directions they might all be saved; I heard him in this manner for perhaps ten minutes, and then I had separated so far from the hurricane deck on which the captain and a large number were, that I heard no more; all around me were numbers of persons floating on pieces of the wreck, until it became daylight; it became so light that I could see some distance, I discovered a large mass of the wreck a little distance to the windward of us, covered with people; I then got on quite a large piece of wreck which was floating near me, and which contained no other person, and no person got on it after I did; the large mass to the windward,
470
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
of which I have just spoken, now began to separate ; I then left the piece I was on and got on a large piece of the hurricane deck, on which were four other persons; don't know who they were. On this fragment I remained until we reached about a quarter-mile of the shore, when our raft broke up, and two, of the four on it with me, were washed off and drowned; a moment after, the remainder of our party were washed off by a heavy sea, and one more of our little party drowned; my remaining companion contrived to regain the raft and I again took a life-preserver which I found afloat, and on this I floated to the shore just below the bluff; from the time I was swept from the raft until I reached the shore, I was several times buried deep under the waves; when close to shore I was thrown from my raft and went to the bottom, and although the water was not more than three or four feet, I was so exhausted as to be unable to rise, and crawled for some distance under the water until I reached dry land.
"Early in the morning I discovered a fragment of the wreck a short dis- tance from me, on which was a woman and three men. She was so much ex- hausted that she seemed unable to keep from dropping to sleep, although the exertions of the three men were continually in use to prevent it. She was finally drowned while remaining on the wreck, being unable to keep her head from the water. Her body remained on the fragment of the wreck as long as it was in sight. I saw many pieces of wreck, containing from two to four per- sons, capsized, almost invariably drowning all that were on them. To avoid the capsizing of our frail craft bark, I instructed the men with me to sit on it so as to keep the edges under water. This prevented us capsizing and at the same time enabled us to float faster ; we, in this way, having passed many'of the other crafts. I saw one woman alone floating on a dining table, and, a short time after I discovered her, the table capsized, and she disappeared under water for several seconds, but, finally, reappeared on the surface, clinging to the table, and, eventually, by great exertions, she regained her seat upon the table. When I last saw her she was near the shore, and, as I heard of a woman being saved shortly after I was taken to a house near by, I presume she must have been the one. By my instructions, our party most of the time turned our faces from the shore, and thus faced the waves, and in this way we were enabled to watch the breakers as they came toward us, and be prepared for them. In this way we were several times saved from being washed off, while almost all those near us were carried off their frail bark, and perished. Under one piece of the wreck which was found floating near us, were four dead cattle, fastened to it. On this were three or four persons. The buoyancy of the dead bodies of the cat- tle kept this piece of the wreck almost entirely out of the water, and when last seen this peculiar life-boat was very near the shore, and the persons on it were doubtless saved.
471
LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
" When I passed through the cabin on the way to the pilot house, imme- diately after the collision, there was much confusion there. Many of the pas- sengers, owing to the scarcity of berths, were asleep on the floor, and, when the collision took place, the vessel listed so much that all rolled in a pile on one side of the cabin. This caused much confusion, and when persons from above commenced pulling down the doors and other floating material, the anxiety to obtain these preservers was great indeed. About daylight I saw one boat, badly stove, bottom side up, six or seven men clinging to it. Whether or not they were saved I cannot say.
" When I reached the shore, every attention which heartfelt sympathy could suggest was paid to me and the other survivors. One gentleman pulled off his coat and gave it to me, and another his boots. Mr. Pierce, of the Adams House, Chicago, was one of the first to reach the scene of disaster, and his ef- forts for the comfort and safety of all were unceasing.
" During the time I was on the wreck I contrived to keep myself warm by thrashing my arms, catching pieces of wreck, etc., and in this manner I saved myself from suffering from the cold, which proved so fatal to many."
STATEMENT OF M. E. SMITH, OF ONTONAGON.
( Published September 22, 1860, in the New York Illustrated News. )
" I was asleep in the mate's room when the collision took place; but, awakened by the loud crash, I went on deck as soon as possible. The vessel with which we collided had got clear of us, and Captain Wilson was giving orders to lower a boat to ascertain the extent of the injury ; but when down the boat could not get near the Elgin by reason of the waves and wind. I assisted in rolling freight to the starboard, to list the boat over, and also in getting over- board some cattle for the purpose of lightering up. But the water seemed to be coming in so fast that the captain ran to the pilot house to see how she was heading. Being told ' west' he said, "That's right, boys, get her in to land if you can.' He then ran back to the cabin and endeavored to arouse the sleepers, and get them on the hurricane deck. Many of the stateroom doors were fastened, and he broke them in with an axe, exhorting the sleepers, many of whom had been drinking a good deal, to rouse up and save themselves. A few of them refused to leave their berths, but after a little time, a greater part of the passengers had got to the upper deck. The captain told each man and woman to get a plank life-preserver-in which loops of rope were tied-and prepare for the worst. There appeared to be plenty of these, and some were passed down the skylights into the cabins for the use of those who would not come out. Most of the passengers were cool and collected. Captain Wilson kept encouraging them by cheerful words and by assurances that the deck would carry us all ashore. At length-surely not more than fifteen minutes
472
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
from the first alarm-the Elgin began to settle and reel as if for the final plunge. A few loud screams arose, and a few frantic passengers jumped overboard in a hurry to meet their fate. Just at the moment when the boat went down, a sea struck her upper works, and they parted from the hull and floated off in several pieces. This was a trying moment. The shock and force of the waves swept off several of our number; but the night was dark, and as the lights were soon gone, I found myself on a piece of the wreck, perhaps 15x30-a portion of the upper deck, the boards and ribs, or carlins, to which they were nailed. In com- pany with me were from twenty-five to twenty-eight persons, and we had nothing to do but to suffer ourselves to be floated toward shore. Among the pieces of wreck we found a few cabin doors. These we secured and, setting them and our pieces of plank up on end, broadside to the wind, made them serve as sails. Soon after setting out on our perilous journey, we discovered another piece of the deck, more deeply loaded than ours. Captain Wilson was on it, with two or three others; he came to our float and continued with us, keeping us in heart with his words of good cheer. After daybreak he busied himself in providing for the general safety, by fastening loops to the carlins, by which we might hang on when we came to the surf. There were with us four or five women. One of these had a child about six months old, for the safety of which the captain was exceedingly solicitous. He held it when not otherwise employed. He had given it up but a moment, to attend to some matter, when a wave swept it out of the hands of him to whom he handed it, and it was gone. This child and a man and woman were all lost. We spent the night in comparative comfort. The storm was severe, but we did not suffer greatly from the cold. The water was warm.
"About 9:15 o'clock we neared the shore of Winnetka. About two hundred feet from the shore our frail craft was lifted by the surf, which was running in strong, and completely capsized. The raft was broken by the force of the waves. Captain Wilson, Mr. Walde, of the National Mine, Ontonagon, Mr. George Newton, of Superior City, and myself, clung to one piece of the deck; but again striking the surf we again capsized, and all thrown into the surging waves. I managed to strike the wreck again and Mr. Walde got on another piece, but Mr. Newton and Captain Wilson were seen no more. After much exertion and appalling danger, I gained the land. Of the twenty-eight on our raft, only eight-seven men and one woman-were saved. The others went down within sight and sound of safety.
" I want to say that Captain Wilson behaved nobly from beginning to the fatal close. That any are saved, except those that came off in the boats, is due to him."
473
LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
FRANCIS BOYD'S EXPERIENCE.
Graphic Description of the Fight with the Waves on the Raft.
(From the Milwaukee Sentinel. )
"We left Chicago about 11 o'clock, or a little after, on the night of the accident (September 7th). It was a very hot, close night, and for this reason the boat kept well out from shore to get cool air. The boat was crowded with passengers and had a heavy load of freight for Mackinaw and Lake Su- perior ports. Everything went on all right. The passengers were dancing in the cabin until nearly two o'clock. A little before two o'clock in the morn- ing she was struck by a heavy squall from the northeast, and the change of wind was very sudden. Just as the squall struck us there was a schooner called the Augusta near by, and when the men on the schooner let go the head sheets and kept the mainsail on her, the Lady Elgin happened to be in her way. She struck the Lady Elgin just abaft the upper deck, and made a hole at the water line that we could roll a hogshead through. I happened to be standing on the forward deck at the time, and saw the whole affair. Of course, there was a great panic and running around. The people were excited and wild. They headed the steamer to the shore. The steamer, at the time of the collision, was off Waukegan, in sight of Kenosha light. In five or ten minutes the boat went down. The boats were all lowered and filled, but there was a heavy sea running after the squall, and they all swamped but one, which came ashore at six o'clock in the morning. That boat was in charge of the porter of the vessel.
" I, myself, jumped overboard a few minutes before she went down, with an oar in my hand, and swam around with that until she went down. It was raining very hard then, and the thunder and lightning was very heavy. I got a good glimpse of her just as she went down, in a lightning flash. She seemed to break in the center and settle down amidships. I drifted across some of the wreckage, that they called the raft-the upper decks of the steamer which broke off when the steamer went down. I got on the raft and sat there awhile. Just before daybreak Captain Wilson came around and called for volunteers to help manage the raft, and I joined them. We kept the raft headed to the east, and sailed before the wind, and brought up in the breakers off Winnetka, the first one of which tore the raft all to pieces and rolled it up like a carpet. At daybreak, there were sixty persons on the raft, by actual count, but, occa- sionally, one or two would be washed off and seemed to die of the cold or perish of exhaustion. The air was very cold and the water was warm, and the way we kept from freezing was to dip ourselves occasionally in the water. When the raft broke up I got hold of a piece of it with three other men, and navigated it to the bank. It was a perilous passage. The sea was running
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
higli, and great beams and pieces of wreckage were constantly dashing about, to the danger of all in the vicinity. "The breakers tore us off our raft, but we al- ways got back the best way we could. Finally, we landed at Steep Bluff. It was so precipitous that we could not get up the bank, but men on top of the bluff let down ropes and hauled us to the top, one by one. We were in a very cold and wet condition. We were directed to a residence near by, and went there. It proved to be the residence of a Chicago commission merchant, named Clark. He supplied us with food and blankets, and a cart to ride to the depot. The three men who were saved with me were Denny Gilmore, a brother of the band leader, who was a resident of the Third ward, John Mc- Lindell, who keeps the McLindell house, and James McManus, a machinist in the shops of the Mississippi railroad.
" There was sixty-five or sixty-six persons saved, and papers at the time placed the number of lost at about three hundred and ninety. Of the sixty-five or sixty-six on the raft, only eight or ten were saved. Most of them were killed by the breakers. Captain Wilson had his skull crushed by a timber a few feet from shore. He was carrying a baby in his arms when he went down. We saw him go down, and when he didn't come up again we knew he was lost. Tom Eviston, chief of the fire department, had his head crushed in the breakers. John W. Eviston saved his wife and himself by float- ing ashore on top of the pilot house, and Martin Eviston came ashore on top of an overturned boat.
" The occasion of the big crowd of Milwaukeeans on the boat was an ex- cursion rate of one dollar for the round trip from Milwaukee to Chicago, for the benefit of the Montgomery Guard. Governor Randall had taken away the company's arms, which belonged to the state, and the friends of Captain Barry volunteered to present the company with arms of their own. So, various devices were employed to raise the necessary funds, one of which was the ex- cursion. Many militiamen were among the excursionists that perished, as well as city officials and members of the fire department. It was a woful time for Milwaukee. The whole city was draped in black. Nineteen victims were buried in one day from the St. John's Cathedral, and there were many funerals. In fact, I did not do anything for two months but act as pallbearer for the victims of the disaster. They kept coming ashore at many different points. A singular case was that of a young man named Rooney, whose father kept an auctioneer's place on East Water street, between Huron and Detroit. The son's body came ashore at the foot of Huron street. Another body from the wreck came ashore at Port Washington, others in Chicago harbor, and others came ashore across the lake."
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LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.
SCENES AT THE WRECK.
( From the Chicago Press and Tribune.)
" When our reporters reached Winnetka, at 10 A. M., the surf was rolling in heavily and breaking in thunder along the beach, the gale having risen to a fearful fury, from the northeast, and thus nearly on shore. The shore there was an uneven bluff, ranging from thirty to sixty feet in height, with a narrow strip of beach at its base.
" The whole beach for three miles we found strewn with fragments of the light, upper portions of the ill-fated steamer, and out at sea, where the waves were rolling more heavily than is usually seen even in our September gales, the surface of the angry waters for miles in extent, as far as the eye could reach seaward, was dotted with fragments of the wreck, and rafts and spars with what were clearly made out to be human beings clinging to them. At this time (10 A. M.) various authorities make out that from eighty to one hundred persons could have been counted driving at the mercy of the maddened ele- ments, toward the high rolling breakers and surf-washed beach and bluff, whence thousands with straining eyes watched their progress, and with pale cheeks noted, as alas, too many, meet their fate in the waves.
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