Dispatches from the Drownings: Reporting the Fiction of Nonfiction

By B.J. Hollars

Disturbed by stories of drownings in the river behind his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, writer B. J. Hollars combed the archives of local newspapers only to discover vast discrepancies in articles about the deaths. In homage to Michael Lesy’s cult classic, Wisconsin Death Trip, Hollars pairs reports from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century journalists with fictional versions, creating a hybrid text complete with facts, lies, and a wide range of blurring in between. Charles Van Schaick’s macabre, staged photographs from the era appear alongside the dispatches, further complicating the messiness of history and the limits of truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780826355041

B.J. Hollars

B. J. Hollars is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. His most recent book is Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa.

Book preview

Dispatches from the Drownings

DISPATCHES FROM THE DROWNINGS

REPORTING THE FICTION OF NONFICTION

B. J. HOLLARS

© 2014 by the University of New Mexico Press

All rights reserved. Published 2014

Printed in the United States of America

19  18  17  16  15  14        1  2  3  4  5  6

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Hollars, B. J.

Dispatches from the drownings : reporting the fiction of nonfiction / B. J. Hollars.

    pages cm

Collection of the press coverage of drownings chiefly in the Eau Claire Region, Wisconsin, 1875–1922.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8263-5503-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8263-5504-1 (electronic)

1. Eau Claire Region (Wis.) —History—19th century. 2. Eau Claire Region (Wis.)—History—20th century. 3. Drowning—Press coverage—Wisconsin—Eau Claire Region. 4. Drowning victims—Press coverage—Wisconsin—Eau Claire Region. I. Title.

F589.E14H86 2014

977.5’45—dc23

2014003245

Cover illustration courtesy of Earth’s Elements PhotoDisc © Getty Images

To the victims, of whom there are many.

The story of a city,

like the story of a river,

contains thousands of ripples and eddies,

many different perspectives,

and vivid scenes that change with shadows and light.

—Transportation Museum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 2013

Contents

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

Part One. 1875–1899

A Touching Scene ~ June 11, 1875

Exploits of a Pig ~ August 31, 1875

Sad Accident Claims the Lives of Four ~ April 29, 1876

Another Sad Case of Drowning ~ July 14, 1879

Boy Drowned in Half Moon Lake ~ June 3, 1880

Body, Doubloons Discovered Along the Banks of the Chippewa River ~ March 7, 1884

After Four Months ~ April 2, 1885

Sad Case of Drowning ~ July 11, 1885

Suicides ~ November 26, 1887

Claimed by the Chippewa ~ July 30, 1888

A Live Ghost ~ June 29, 1891

Where Is He? ~ May 8, 1892

Like Murder! ~ May 29, 1892

Like Murder!—The Watchman’s Story ~ May 29, 1892

Newlyweds Waterlogged in River ~ June 16, 1893

Narrow Escape ~ May 20, 1894

Boy Drowned ~ May 20, 1894

His Body Found ~ February 3, 1895

Met Death By Drowning ~ May 11, 1895

Little Boy Drowned ~ May 11, 1895

Was It Attempted Suicide ~ June 6, 1895

Suicide at Appleton ~ April 18, 1896

Body Found ~ May 16, 1896

Rescued from a Watery Grave ~ June 14, 1896

Unidentified Sea Creature Washes Ashore in the Eau Claire River ~ September 10, 1896

New Mother Sacrifices Child to the River ~ December 13, 1896

Speculators Meet Fate in the Eau Claire River ~ May 7, 1897

Family Loses Two to River ~ September 13, 1897

A Sad Affair ~ June 18, 1898

Attempted Suicide ~ April 1, 1899

Boat Regatta Claims Life ~ July 10, 1899

Changed His Mind ~ July 22, 1899

Part Two. 1900–1906

The Camel Can’t Swim ~ June 19, 1900

Six Rivermen Drown ~ September 17, 1900

Bachelor Party Takes Chilly Turn ~ October 11, 1900

Two More Slip Beneath the Ice, Drown ~ February 1, 1901

Miraculous Rescue on the Chippewa ~ June 29, 1901

Two Boys Drown While Bathing ~ July 31, 1901

An Old Lumberman Dies ~ August 10, 1901

Wolf Hunt Turns Deadly in River ~ January 16, 1902

Local Boy Becomes Disoriented in Cave, Drowns ~ May 19, 1902

Young Girl Is Drowned ~ July 17, 1902

River Claims an Old Pilot ~ April 23, 1903

Olssen’s Buoyant Brick Sinks, Kills Inventor ~ May 19, 1903

Heroic Rescue ~ June 24, 1904

Wilson’s Body Is Found ~ July 7, 1904

Frank Wilson Re-Buried ~ July 9, 1904

Narrow Escape from Drowning ~ June 1, 1905

Chippewa River Gives Up Dead ~ June 6, 1905

Was Drowned at Chippewa ~ June 6, 1905

Aftermath of Central Wreck ~ June 9, 1905

Died While Bathing ~ July 4, 1905

Eleven Men Were Drowned ~ July 11, 1905

Heroic Effort to Make Rescue ~ July 11, 1905

A Corpse Is Found ~ July 11, 1905

Recovery of Bodies ~ July 11, 1905

Blomquist Boy May Be Drowned ~ August 24, 1905

His Absence a Mystery ~ August 25, 1905

No Traces Yet of Missing Boy ~ August 25, 1905

Drowning Was an Accident ~ August 29, 1905

The Last of the Logging Casualties? ~ September 25, 1905

Drowned at Glidden ~ November 25, 1905

Sailing Party Suffers Tragic Losses in Half Moon Lake ~ June 11, 1906

Boy Drowns at Rice Lake ~ June 29, 1906

Woman Lost Two Days ~ August 31, 1906

Halloween Scare Nearly Takes Lives of Three ~ November 1, 1906

Part Three. 1907–1922

Moose Found Rack Up in River ~ March 17, 1907

Young Van Housen Boy Lost to River ~ April 21, 1907

Drowned in Chippewa River ~ August 17, 1907

Body of Young Suicide Found ~ October 4, 1907

Were Enjoying a Cool Bath ~ August 13, 1908

Body of Sweet Found Yesterday ~ June 27, 1909

Home Inmate Is Drowned in River ~ July 6, 1909

Leopold Kortsch Drowns in Dells Pond Yesterday ~ August 22, 1909

Lumber Baron Perishes in River ~ August 28, 1909

Chippewa Girl Drowns in Lake ~ July 30, 1910

Male Curiosity Catches Slayer ~ August 3, 1910

Jumps from Railway Bridge into Icy Waters ~ February 7, 1911

Meets Death While Swimming ~ June 20, 1911

Nels Isaacson Drowns in River ~ October 27, 1912

Boy Ghost Found Drowned in River ~ November 1, 1912

Near Drowning in Mill Pond ~ February 27, 1913

Three Schoolboys Drown ~ June 24, 1913

Best Swimmer Stays Down ~ August 7, 1913

Burglar Receives Sentencing in the Unforgiving River ~ November 18, 1913

State Happenings ~ June 17, 1914

Two Drown in the Eau Claire River Sunday ~ July 14, 1914

Chippewa River Claims Youth ~ August 28, 1915

Drowning Death Spurred by Heart Attack ~ May 19, 1916

Rivals Drown in River ~ June 7, 1916

Rescued from a Near Icy Death ~ December 5, 1916

Missing Meridean Man Is Found in Chippewa River ~ December 9, 1916

Body of George Bendickson Is Found in River ~ August 12, 1917

Boy Drowns in Chippewa River in Spite of Brave Effort to Rescue; Ice Broke Where Lad Was Playing ~ March 1, 1918

Tibbett’s Body Recovered ~ May 11, 1918

Swimming Showman Proves No Match for River ~ August 11, 1919

Drowning of Dog Rouses Pity Here ~ January 8, 1920

Still Search River for Body of Little Girl ~ May 4, 1922

Boy Escapes Death in River ~ May 11, 1922

Father and Son Drown in River at New London ~ October 25, 1922

Afterword

Bibliography

Photo Credits

About the Author and the Photographer

Acknowledgments

THIS BOOK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE EFFORTS of loyal friends, family members, archivists, and colleagues.

Thank you to Greg Kocken, Head of Special Collections at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, for exposing me to a few of the lesser-trod trails available to me when untangling these tangles of history.

Thank you to the early readers—Michael Martone, Marcia Aldrich, Brendan Todt, and Jamie Vue: your insight buoyed this book.

Thanks to Elise McHugh and the University of New Mexico Press for taking a chance on an unconventional text.

To Michael Lesy, whose own work inspired my own.

To Tom Giffey and Nick Meyer, who first took me on my Wisconsin Death Trip.

To Charles Van Schaick, for finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.

To the journalists past and present of the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, The Eau Claire Leader, The Weekly Telegram, The Morning Telegram, The Telegram, The Eau Claire Daily Free Press, the Eau Claire Argus, and all the other manifestations of the local newspapers of this region—your shoe leather and sweat has preserved this past indefinitely.

To Lisa Marine and the Wisconsin History Society for assistance in preparing the photographs.

To Edgar Lee Masters, for breaking the boundaries of death.

To my kind-hearted and wildly talented colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire—thank you for letting me roam your halls.

To my students—remember, only 75 percent of what I say is true.

And finally, to my families both old and new—mother, father, brother, wife, son, and daughter: thanks for keeping me afloat.

Author’s Note

I. FABRICATING THE FACTS

WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ IS NOT YOUR CONVENTIONAL BOOK, IT does not, for instance, have a plot that expands much beyond a page, nor do the characters live beyond their momentary gasps above the water-line. Instead, the plot is always the same—people drowning—and the characters are those who partake in the plot—the victims themselves.

With this in mind, let the reader be warned: there is little suspense to be had here. In most instances death is a foregone conclusion. One must arrive at the drama not by betting for or against survival, but by understanding that the bet has already been placed, that all that remains of the victims are their details.

As I began researching the many natural water drownings collected herein—all of which occurred between 1875 and 1922 in or around my home of Eau Claire, Wisconsin—I was surprised by the vast discrepancies included in the news reports. While some reports mentioned little more