Wedding tourists at the Falls--Bridges to the Moss Islands--Railway
at the ferry--List of persons who have been carried over the
Falls--Other accidents.
For many years Niagara has been a favorite resort for bridal tourists,
who in a crowd of strangers can be so excessively proper that every one
else can see how charmingly improper they are.
The three fine, graceful bridges which unite Goat Island with the three
smaller islands--the Moss Islands, or the Three Sisters--lying south of
it were built in 1858. They opened up a new and attractive feature of
the locality, with which all visitors are charmed. Those who have been
on them will remember what a broken, wild, tangled mass of rocks, wood,
and vines they are. Nothing on Onalaska's wildest shore could be more
thoroughly primitive.
[Illustration: THE THREE SISTERS OR MOSS ISLANDS]
A rude path with steps cut in the slope of the bank was for several
years the only way of getting down to the water's edge at the ferry. In
1825 several flights of stairs were erected, with good paths between,
which made the task quite safe and easy. The double railway-track at the
ferry was completed in 1845. When the necessary excavations were nearly
finished, and people were told the object of it, the scheme met no
approval from those conservative persons who have no faith in new
things. The idea of a railway "to go by water" was not considered a
brilliant one. Indeed, the greater number shrugged their shoulders at
the thought of riding down _that_ hill. But as soon as the lumber cars
were started for the convenience of the workmen, and people saw how
expeditious and easy was the trip, it was difficult to keep them off the
cars. Hundreds of thousands of passengers have ridden in them without
accident or injury. The motive power is a reaction waterwheel set in a
deep pit, and as all the machinery is concealed, it has quite the
appearance of a self-working apparatus. There is alongside of the
railroad a straight stair-way of two hundred and ninety steps, for those
who prefer to use it.
The number of victims whom carelessness or folly has sent over the Falls
is large, and, it may be believed, is quite independent of the Indian
tradition that the great cataract demands a yearly sacrifice of two
human victims.
OVER THE FALLS.
In 1810 the boat _Independence_, laden with salt, filled and sunk while
crossing to Chippewa. The captain and two of the crew went over the
Falls. One of the crew clung to a large oar, and was saved by a small
boat from Chippewa.
1821 Two men in a scow were driven down the current by the wind, and
went over the Falls.
1825 Two men in a boat from Grand Island went over.
--Three men went over in three different canoes.
1841 Two men, engaged in smuggling, were upset in the current; one went
over. One was found dead on Grass Island.
--Two men who were carrying sand in a scow were drawn into the current
and went over.
1847 A lad of fourteen undertook to row across on a Sunday morning, and
went over.
1848 In August, a man in a boat passed under the Goat Island Bridge,
within ten feet of the shore; he asked of persons on the bridge, "Can I
be saved?" Soon after the boat upset, and he went over, feet foremost,
struck on the rocks below, and was never seen afterward.
--A little boy and girl were playing in a skiff, which swung off the
shore; the mother waded into the water and rescued the girl. The boy,
sitting in the bottom of the skiff, with a hand on each side, went over.
1870 A lady from Chicago, said to be deranged, threw herself from Goat
Island Bridge, and went over.
1871 In June three men, unacquainted with the river, hired a boat to
cross, were drawn into the rapids and went over.
--In July two men in a boat went over.
1873 Friday, July 4th, a young man and woman, and a boy twelve years of
age, brother of the latter, hired a boat in Chippewa, ostensibly for a
sail on the river. Not understanding the currents, they were drawn into
the rapids and carried over the Horseshoe Fall. The bodies were not
recovered. It was afterward ascertained that the young man had taken
$500 from his father, in Ohio; had come to Chippewa to meet the young
woman, who was from Toronto, to whom he was married on the day preceding
their death.
1874 September 19th, a young man connected with the Mohawk Institute, at
Brantford, Canada--whether as student or instructor was not
known--walked deliberately into the rapids above Table Rock, and was
carried over the precipice, never to be seen again.
1875 September 8th, Captain John Jones--at that time marine surveyor for
a New York insurance company--jumped into the rapids below Goat Island
Bridge, and went over the cliff, before the eyes of many excursionists.
Ill-health was supposed to be the cause. The body was not found.
1877 March 5th, Mr. G. Homer Stone, aged twenty-four, a school-teacher,
living near Geneva, N. Y., leaped into the rapids, near the upper end of
Prospect Park, and was carried over the Falls. The body was not
recovered.
--July 1st, three men went out in a sail-boat from Connor's Island,
during a high wind and very rough water. Attempting a starboard tack, in
order to reach Gill Creek Island, the boat was upset, and two of
them--after the three had tried in vain to right the boat, and found it
difficult to keep their hold--abandoned it and tried to swim ashore;
but, owing to the rough sea and their wet and heavy clothing, they were
soon exhausted, and went to the bottom. The third man, divesting himself
of everything except his pantaloons, determined to swim for the nearest
land the down-floating boat should pass. Fortunately, a large boat,
manned by three sturdy oarsmen, coming up the river, rescued him, after
he had become nearly exhausted. Three days after the accident one of the
bodies was found near Grass Island, above the Falls, and the other, two
days later, in the Whirlpool below.
1877 October 16th, the discovery in the morning of several articles of
female apparel on a flat rock, near the site of the old stone tower, and
close to the brink of the Falls, led to investigation, which developed
the fact that Miss Schofield, a young woman from Woodstock, in Canada,
while suffering from a sudden attack of brain fever, had thrown herself
into the rapids, and gone over the Horseshoe Fall. She was a skillful
telegrapher, and had some local literary reputation. Her body was never
recovered.
1878 April 1st, John and Patrick Reilley, brothers, started from Port
Day, above the Falls, to row across to Chippewa. One of them, being
under the influence of liquor, refused to row steadily and quarreled
with his brother, thus preventing him from rowing. They were drawn over
the Canadian side of the Horseshoe Fall about four o'clock in the
afternoon. They were both skillful rowers, and well acquainted with the
river, which they had crossed and recrossed many times. Their bodies
were recovered several weeks later.
1878 April 6th, a young man, nineteen years of age, from Woodstock,
Canada, a member of the Queen's Own, a volunteer regiment, which had
attended a recent military review at Montreal, was on his return home,
and crossed from Chippewa to Navy Island to visit friends who kept small
boats on both sides of the river. After finishing his visit, he declined
to accept the assistance of a young relative in recrossing the river,
and started alone. The result was that, not understanding the force of
the treacherous current, he was carried into the great rapids and went
over the Horseshoe Fall. His body was found, two days afterward, below
the ferry.
1879 June 21st, the names of Monsieur and Madame Rolland were registered
at one of the hotels, where they spent a night, but took their meals at
a restaurant kept by a Frenchman, because Monsieur R. could not, as he
said, speak English. The following morning they went to the Moss
Islands. While near the lower end of the outer island, so the husband
claimed, madame took a cup from him to get a drink of water from the
rapids, and, while his attention was diverted for a moment, he heard a
splash in the water, and on looking round, saw that his wife had fallen
into the rapids. She went over the Horseshoe Fall. He showed great
distress and every demonstration of sorrow. Nevertheless, he left the
next day for New York, after giving his address to the
restaurant-keeper, who, a few days afterward, sent word to him that the
body had been recovered. Monsieur R. sent thirty dollars to pay expenses
of burial, and sailed for France. Those who have seen the place where,
according to his story, madame fell in, are skeptical on that point.
1881 February 23d, a stranger named Doyle threw himself into the rapids
from Prospect Park, and was carried over the American Fall. A body found
some days after in the river below, claimed by friends to be his, was
identified by a coroner's jury as that of a man named Rowell, whose body
had been found some days before in the river, near the ferry, with a
bullet through the head. It was never ascertained whether it was a
suicide or an assassination.
--July 12th, the body of a woman was found floating below the Falls,
having evidently come from the river above. Some female wearing apparel
found on the shore of the rapids, below Goat Island Bridge, it was
supposed belonged to the suicide.
1881 Dr. H. and Mrs. S., of good birth, education, and social position,
loved not wisely but too well. Exposure was certain and near. They met
at Niagara, July 14th, and went over the Falls together.
--September 5th, a man from Toronto plunged into the rapids at Table
Rock, and went over. In a letter to a Toronto paper, he stated that
domestic trouble was the impelling motive.
BELOW THE FALLS.
In 1841 A number of British soldiers, stationed at Drummondville,
attempted to swim across the rapids at the ferry at different times.
None succeeded, and two were drowned.
1842 A British soldier attempted to lower himself down the bank,
opposite Barnett's Museum, in order to escape to the American shore. The
rope broke, and he was killed by the fall.
1844 In August, a gentleman was washed under the great Fall, from a rock
on which he had stepped, against the remonstrances of the guide. He was
drowned.
1846 In August, a gentleman fell forty feet from a rock near the Cave of
the Winds, and was instantly killed.
1875 August 9th, two young women and three young men, residents of the
village, went through the Cave of the Winds, as they had often done
before, to enjoy the exhilarating bath. One of the young women, Miss P.,
stepped into one of the eddying pools lying a little outside of the
usual track, and one of the young men, Mr. P., thinking she might find
the current stronger than she anticipated, followed her, and while
seeking a sure footing for himself to guard against accident, the young
lady lost her balance and fell into the current. Mr. P. endeavored to
seize her bathing-dress, but not succeeding, sprang at once into the
current, and both went over a ledge some eight feet high, at the foot of
which Miss P. rose to her feet in an eddy, and sought support by leaning
against a large rock lying adjacent to it. When Mr. P. rose to the
surface he swam to her, and thinking they would be safer in an opening
among smaller rocks on the opposite side of the eddy, he put his arm
round her, and both made a desperate effort to reach the desired
shelter. But the current proved too strong, and bore them both out into
the river; Mr. P. swimming on his back, and supporting Miss P. with his
right arm, while her right hand rested upon his shoulder. Suddenly they
became separated. Miss P., apparently concluding that both could not be
saved, disengaged herself from him, and immediately sank below the
surface. Instantly her heroic friend plunged after her. A cloud of spray
covered the troubled waters for a moment, and when it passed nothing
could be seen of the unfortunate pair. The treacherous under-currents
bore them to their doom. Both bodies were recovered a few days afterward
from the Whirlpool.
1877 August 31st, Dr. Louis M. Stein registered at the International
Hotel. The following day, after riding to different points on the
American side of the Falls, he alighted at the upper Suspension Bridge,
and inviting a young bootblack to accompany him, he started across the
bridge, talking rather incoherently on the way. When near the Canadian
end he stopped, took from his pocket a roll of bills, gave the boy a
dollar note, and returned the others to his pocket. He then started
back, and when near the center of the bridge dropped his hand-bag and
shawl, seized the boy, saying with an oath, "You have got to come, too!"
and attempted to climb over the railing. The boy successfully resisted,
but the man got over and dropped from one of the wire stays into the
river, one hundred and ninety feet below. He was probably killed
instantly, and the body floated down the river, from which it was taken
some ten days afterward and delivered to a son, who arrived from New
York city.
--December 25th, a man from Chatauqua County, N. Y., suffering from
ill-health and misfortune, jumped from the new Suspension Bridge, and
was never seen again.
The narrowest escape at the Falls was that of the man who, in January,
1852, fell from the Tower Bridge into the rapids, and was caught between
two rocks just on the brink of the precipice, whence he was rescued,
nearly exhausted, by means of a rope.
In 1874, Mr. William McCullough, while at work painting the small bridge
between the first and second Moss Islands, missed his footing and fell
into the middle of the channel; he was carried down about fifty rods,
and, going over a ledge into more quiet water, got on his feet and waded
to a small rock projecting above the water, upon which he seated himself
to collect his senses and await results. After several vain efforts to
get a rope to him, Mr. Thomas Conroy, a guide, then connected with the
Cave of the Winds, who had in the previous autumn conducted Professor
Tyndall up to Tyndall's Rock, put on a pair of felt shoes, and, holding
to an inch rope, picked his way with an alpen-stock, from a point a
short distance up-stream, through favoring eddies and pools to
McCullough. After a short rest, he put the rope around McCullough, under
his arms, and winding the end around his own right arm, the two started
shoreward. On reaching the deep water near the shore, both were taken
off their feet, and, as the people pulled vigorously at the rope, their
heads went under for a short distance, but they were safely landed. A
contribution was taken up for Conroy's benefit, and Professor Tyndall,
on hearing of the rescue, sent him a five-pound note.
In view of the fact that nearly every year persons are drawn into the
rapids and carried over the Falls, a New York journalist suggested a
most extraordinary method of saving them. He proposed that a cable
should be stretched across the rapids, above the Falls, strong enough to
arrest boats, and to which persons in danger might cling until rescued.
But this kind and ingenious person forgot that old canal-boats, rafts of
logs, and large trunks of trees, with roots attached, would be
troublesome things to hold at anchor. As well hope to stay an Alpine
avalanche with pipe-stems.