One of the most tragic accidents that has occurred in this county for many years took place in Catherton precinct, 16 miles northwest of Red Cloud Sunday afternoon, shortly after four o’clock. Albert N. Wilson and a young man by the name of Ole Iverson went bathing in a pond that had been constructed by the damming of a draw. The water was 15 feet deep and about 40 across. They had not been in the water long before Mr. Wilson was heard to give a cry for help and at the same time was seen to throw his arms widely into the air and then sink from view. Young Iverson, at once surmising that the swimmer had been stricken with cramps, immediately went to the rescue, but the struggling man proved too heavy for the younger one and he was forced to abandon him, after he himself was nearly drowned in his efforts to lend assistance. Other help was then secured, and a rope was tied around young Iverson and he made for the place where the body had disappeared. He made a heroic effort to dive and reach the man whose life was, or had already passed away, but without avail. When he came to the surface blood was running from his nostrils and but for the rope about him he would have never reached the shore. Work was then begun to break the dam and drain the pond, but this consumed time and it was an hour before a sufficient amount of water had escaped to permit of recovering the body. Of course life was then entirely extinct but doctors had been summoned both from Bladen and Red Cloud and they worked with the man in a vain attempt to start a spark of respiration. It was a sad ending of a prosperous life. The funeral was held from the home Monday afternoon, conducted by Rev. Priestly of Bladen. It was the largest funeral ever witnessed in the history of Webster County, the first of the procession reaching the cemetery one mile distant before the last had left the residence.
Albert N. Wilson was born in Frederick county, Virginia November 9, 1856. In 1877 he came to Webster county and settled in the southern part of Catherton precinct but a few years later purchased a farm 6 1/2 miles from Bladen. On October 29, 1855, he was married to Mary Robinson, who now survived him, and with three children, Vera, Maud and Kenneth, mourns the untimely departure of a true husband and kind father. He also leaves an aged father, two sister and three brothers.
Source:
The Webster County Argus
1902
