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100 years ago
June 11, 1915
HARTINGTON — Charles, the six-year old son of Mr. and Mrs. R.F. Coyle, of this city was drowned Friday in Bow Creek.
He was in the company of Wilton Spooner, a boy about his own age, when the accident took place. The boys went to the creek and were playing near the dam recently built by the Hartington Electrical Company, when it began to rain heavily, with about half an inch of water falling in about 10 minutes.
After the storm, the boys were wading near the bank of the creek and the water rose so rapidly the Coyle boy was caught in the rush and carried out with the current. Some think perhaps he stepped over the edge of the bank where the water was about 15 feet deep.
His companion cannot describe just how it happened. The Spooner boy came home and after he told of the story, the report was circulated and immediately Mayor Walz and many local citizens began a search for the body.
The search has since been continued almost night and day with no results as of yet. Dynamite was used in an attempt to raise the body and many miles of the creek have been searched without result. Woven wire, about six feet high has also been stretched across the creek about a mile east of where the accident occurred in an attempt to catch the body.
A 150-foot ditch has been cut to change the course of the stream. Which should cause about 200 yards of the old creek bed to dry up, which will allow the search party to investigate fully the immediate vicinity in which the boy was drowned.
Later, the boy’s body was found by Raymond Knutson and Everett Johnston on the John Hoppe farm five miles down the stream.
