A Sad Catastrophe: Two Boys Drowned at Ten Acres While Sailing a Boat (1894)

 Source: The Greenwich Graphic. December 1, 1894, Page 1.

The Pond at Ten Acres
(former Ebenezer Mead Farm, now the site of Cardinal Stadium on the campus of Greenwich High School).

No more sad affair has occurred in Greenwich in many years than the drowning of two boys at Ten Acres on Sunday morning last. The community was startled and horrified, as the report spread quickly after the catastrophe, and expressions of sorrow were heard on every hand and deep sympathy for the parents of the boys came from every one.

Three boys, John Mead, aged 16 years; James Gillespie and John Brandan, 18 and 17 years old, started on Sunday morning for Ten Acres. John Mead, a son of Captain Joseph G. Mead, Jr., a resident of Mechanic Street, had invited his cousin John Brandon, who lives in Brooklyn, to come to Greenwich and make him a visit, and Brandon asked his friend, James Gillespie, to come with him and he consented. They came on Saturday and expected to stay a day or two.

John Mead wanted to make it pleasant for his friends and show them around, and proposed that they go down to Ten Acres. It was about 9 o'clock when they arrived there.

On the north end of the pond there was a boat. Recently Mr. Maher had thrown up an embankment across this portion of the pond to keep sticks and leaves and debris from the brook from entering the pond, and this had formed a second pond being separated from the larger one by the embankment. This upper pond is quite large, but it was thought that the water was shallow here and that there was no danger. 

The boat was in the upper pond. The three boys stepped into the skiff, which had been put there only about two weeks ago. There was no sail in it and they rowed around for a while, and Gillespie said he was cold and went ashore. John Mead said he knew where there was a sail, and Brandon said, "Go get it," and he ran across the field and returned with it. It was much too big for the boat and weather-worn. There was some discussion about using it, but Brandon finally succeeded in rigging it up after a fashion.

Brandon urged them to get into the boat, but Mead and Gillespie were timid about risking their lives in such a craft. Finally Mead jumped in and Gillespie remained on the bank and watched them. They sailed down the pond nicely and all went well. 

First Congregational Church Cemetery, Old Greenwich, Connecticut

First Congregational Church Cemetery, Old Greenwich, Connecticut

As they turned and came back the wind, which was very puffy and stiff, struck the boat and it went over on its side but righted and they came before the breeze at a lively pace. Brandon was at the stern steering and Mead was tending the sail, when the rope broke and the sail flopped.

Johnnie Mead, in attempting to regain the sail, lost his balance and fell in the stern of the boat. This sudden weight tipped it up so that the bow was out of water, and the rear of the boat went under and the water rushed into it. The boys became frightened and the skiff tipped over. 

They were not over fifty feet from land and but a few feet from the embankment. As they were thrown into the water, one of them grasped the rudder rope but the rudder unloosened from its socket.

Gillespie, standing on the bank, hallooed to them to hold on to the boat, but they evidently had become so frightened as to have lost their presence of mind. He could not swim and neither could his comrades. They were in the ditch where the water is about ten feet deep and ten feet wide, and is the deepest part of the pond; two feet to the south of them was the embankment with sloping sides. On the other side of the ditch the water was from five to six feet in depth.

Gillespie saw them come up twice and then they disappeared. He waited for a few minutes and then ran to the village to Johnnie Mead's home. It did not occur to him to run to the nearest house, for he was a stranger and he was too frightened to think of anything but to go to Mr. Mead's house. Exhausted and panting he told Mr. Mead what it happened. 

Help was clipped quickly obtained, and Richard McCormick, Charles Hartung, Thomas Ritch, Mr. Mead and Gillespie went at once to the pond. The boat had drifted nearly ashore, and near it were the hats of the two boys. McCormick and Hartung jumped into the boat, and guided it to the place where the rudder was seen floating, for Gillespie had told them that was the spot, and looking into the water they saw the two boys standing upright, clutching each other. It was the work of but a few minutes to get them out. It was found that the rudder rope had become entangled around Mead's body. 

The poor boy, Gillespie, was almost insane. A GRAPHIC representative met him at the top of Put's Hill just after the bodies had been recovered.

He told the story as best as he could, with trembling form and bated breath, and then pointing to the pond said; "Suppose I had gone out in the boat, where would I have been; lying on the bank dead with them." The poor boy was a sad sight indeed, his reason was on the verge of going.

First United Methodist Church, Greenwich, circa 1890. 

THE FUNERAL

Funeral services were held in the Methodist Church on Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock, and the Church was crowded to overflowing. Chair were placed in the aisles to accommodate the large throng. 

Two white coffins were tenderly and touchingly brought into the Church, one containing the body of john C. Brandow, by six of his comrades who had come from Brooklyn to perform this sad duty. They were James Gillespie, William Allen, Fred Heyman, Frank Broombacker, David Fleming and William Noble, and following were Charles Crosby, Herbert Platt, Jacob Rippel, Harry Talbot, Harry Burnett and Leo Cuecil, bearing the other with the body of John C. Mead.

The bodies were both dressed alike in their coffins, and in the lapel of their coats was a little white bouquet. They were placed near the altar rail, and around them was a mass of flowers made into wreaths, pillows, broken columns and other designs, these being gifts of kind and sympathizing friends. 

The choir of the church sang the favorite hymns of the two boys, one in particular being pathetic, "Throw Out the Life Line." Its effect upon the audience was touching. 

Rev. Dr. Adams delivered an address full of feeling. After the services at the Church the funeral procession proceeded to Sound Beach. 

Conspicuous in the line was a special carriage which contained the flowers, which, at the arrival at the graves, were left upon the coffins of the two boys who were buried as they died, side by side. 

Dr. Adams said: "There is no man standing before his fellow meant such a time as this that knows enough to tell the reason why. There is no man, however deeply he may have suffered, that can communicate to the hearts that are especially bereaved under these circumstances, the comfort that they need. There is no man, however wide his observation and however deep his research, that is able to present the peculiar providence that brings us together this afternoon as to make it clear to his own understanding or to anybody else, that the way that this affliction may work out other than as God himself has set down in his word. 

"It is most unusual that such an accident as this should occur. There are all sorts of things which we call accidents in the world, and yet, if we believe God's Word, somewhere and somehow, he who sees the spiral fall and who is not unmoved by it, takes cognizance of all these strange and effective dispensations, and it is the duty of the minister of religion stands before his fellowmen at such a time as this to point in but one direction, namely, to Him before whom we all stand; to Him who is above all circumstance and is the helper, solace and comfort of man. 

"We turn to that wonderful sentence of the Lords Prayer, 'Our Father who art in Heaven,' and we know that there are things that seem to us utterly disastrous in the world that are after working out that which is good. The flash of lightning and the roar of thunder, while disastrous here and there, while disastrous here in there, make the forces which give the summer its beauty, purifies the air and makes the sunshine clearer than it otherwise could possibly be. It oftentimes turns out that what we think may be calamities are for the best after all. We know not how all things are worked out. 

"Destruction goes everywhere. The plow that goes through the furrow in the spring destroys multitudes of things, and yet out of that apparent destruction comes the waving harvest and the glow of the autumn. It is just so in the gathering of the crops; in a gathering of the crops; there is distraction even in reaping. It is the law of death, as much as the law of life.

"The going off of men in their youth, or in their middle-age, at times seems untimely at times seems untimely and strange and marvelous, and strange and marvelous, but there is one that never fails, and that is God, who loves men even in the depths of their greatest sorrow and bereavement. As a rule poor human nature tries to make the best of things. Certain things come to pass that we expect and we look them in the face. It is the unexpected that happens. Who would have dreamed on that morning, the other day, when these bright young men went for their morning walk that they would never come back? Who would have dreamed that that man who the other day went over to his office in the city of New York would never go back to his home again? Life is full of these things, and strange to say, we never get used to them. Death everywhere! Tombstones standing like silent sentinel, pointing with their marble fingers to another world, and yet we get accustomed to them. 

"There is only one thing that can bring rest to the souls of men in these hours of darkness and sadness, and that is the strength of him who is the omnipotent God. He has taken into his own harbor these souls that have departed. Those same loving arms rule on both sides of the river. As the great bottom is under the ocean and as the shores go down beneath the rivers, so the great arms and hands of God are down under humanity, ready to hold them up and give them strength.

"We come here to-day in the presence of death, not of aged men or aged women, but young men, in their pride and strength, going out quickly into the other world, and it brings a lesson especially to be done: 'Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye the Son of Man cometh.'

"Years ago a woman up in the interior of the state of New York heard her son had been shipwrecked and was drowned. She had been praying for him for years, but some one went into this woman's presence and said, but someone went into this woman's presence and said, 'What do you think now? You have trusted God all your days about your boy; what do you think now?' She clasped her hands, looked up and said, 'Notwithstanding the promise of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.' So I bid these mourning and these sorrowing hearts, look into the face of God.

"It is a hard thing to bury a little baby boy or baby girl; taken out of your arms and taken away to another world. But when our children rise up, slowly growing into manhood and womanhood, until they look right into your eyes on a level, it is harder still. Your boys and your girls come up around you and you lean on them in spite of you; you can't help it; you think you wont, but you do. The mother walks out in the street with her manly boy and takes him by the arm -the boy she carried on her bosom and nurse doesn't baby.the boy she carried on her bosom and nursed as a  baby. The father makes believe he is as young and stalwart as ever, yet after all he leans on them. He thinks he won't but he can't help it. God brings us into such relations, and it is none the worse for us. But oh! when they die! oh when they pass away! Words are not down in poetry; words are not written in human speech: words are not in any literature that I have found, to express it. I have only this to say: God does know you; God does love you and will help you, and God will stand by you.  

"Over the death of these young men let us consecrate ourselves to the service of God. One of them has been on my list of prayer here for more than a year, and every day that has gone over his head there has a prayer gone to heaven for him, I believe God heard it. Let us cultivate love; let us cultivate sympathy; let us give our hearts to God. Young people, let this be a warning to every one of you. Seek the great and loving God; make him your friend; give yourself to the service of the King invisible, eternal and everlasting. Now, in the days of your youth, get ready for the days sure to come."