- 1898, Friday April 15, The Almonte Gazette, front page
Mysterious Disappearance ? A Boy Apparently Drowned
The people of Almonte were greatly excited and much sympathy was evoked for Mrs Kate Black on Saturday evening last when it became known that her only child, little Gilbert Black, nearly six years old, was missing, with indications that he was drowned. Mrs Black, being busy in her shop down town, had not seen her son since early in the forenoon, but, as this was frequently the case, she was not alarmed, thinking he was at Mr Ragdale's, on Church street, where they boarded, Early in the afternoon, she began to make inquiries, and asked Chief Lowry to keep a lookout for Gilbert on his rounds. Late in the afternoon some boys rowing a boat on the Bay found a boy's cap floating on the surface of the water one hundred yards or so from the Bay Hill road. Mr Ragdale identified it as the one worn by the missing boy, and at once the greatest alarm was felt. The little fellow had ben in the habit of playing by himself, and was known to be afraid of the water, but there seems little doubt from what can be learned that he was playing on the bank of the river near Mr Cannon's mill on the shore of the bay, as well as just above the flume at a dangerous point near the old electric light house opposite the mills of the Almonte Knitting Co., (and some say on the steep embankment at the rear of Mr T. Ringrose's shoeshop) and was throwing stones into the raging rapids there. This was about 11:30 a.m. After that hour no trace whatever can be fond of his movements. Without alarming the mother when the cap was found, searching parties were at once organized and a thorough patrol of the river banks and the river itself was made. The was kept up far into the night, and all day Sunday twenty-five or more boats, well-manned and equipped with grappling irons, kept up the search, without the slightest encouragements. The water at the flume was shut off, but without avail. On Monday Mr J.B. Wylie sent to Carleton Place for a quantity of dynamite, and about a dozen shots where put off in several parts of the bay, without effects, On Monday evening an informal meeting of about fifty citizens was held in the office of Messrs Wylie and Shaw, when the council was requested to place on the river four boats manned each by two men to continue the search, and Mr James Metcalf was sworn in as special constable to direct their movements. The search was kept up diligently on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Wednesday night another meeting was held, when arrangements were made to keep up the search for the rest of the week by both volunteered and paid help. It was further resolved to sent to Montreal or Ottawa for a searchlight. Owing to the belied of some that the missing boy had wandered to Col Gemmill's bush near the Bay Hill, a large searching party was organized on Wednesday and made a thorough search, but without result. As usual, a number of exaggerated reports got into circulation, but on being traced to their source they were proven foundation-less. Two booms have been stretched across the river, one at "Brown's Clearing," a mile down from town, and the other at Rosebank, in order to stop the body from passing down, acting on the belief that the body is in the river, of which there is little doubt. Word was also sent to people along the river all the way to Pakenham to be on the lookout for the body; but the belief of many in that owning to the coldness of the water, the body may not rise for some time. The deepest sorrow is felt for Mrs Black, and any fate for her little boy, is positively known, would not be so painful as the terrible suspense, through which she is passing. He was the only solace left her at the time of her husband's death.
1898, Friday April 22, The Almonte Gazette front page
Found in the Bay
The diligent search for the body of little Gilbert Black, who disappeared on Saturday, 9th inst., and who, it was generally believed had been drowned, was kept up all last week, and on Sunday forenoon was rewarded by the finding of the body by Messrs. Ted Boothroyd and Elmo Moreau in about thirty feet of water close to the west shore of the river near the residence of Mr E. Edmonds, and a few yards from where the boy's cap was found. The place had been dragged over a hundred times before by the searchers, but as the body was imbedded in a large mass of sawdust, the hooks had failed to catch on to the clothing. The fact that deceased had been seen on the high bank behind Mr T. Ringrose shoe shop, and that when found there were two cuts on the head, leads many to believe that the little fellow in his childish play had fallen off the bank and was probably stunned before he reached the water, and was carried down the rapids and across the bay; but all is mere conjecture. Undertaker Donaldson, after preparing the body, which was well preserved took it to the residence of Mr Ragsdale, where Mrs Black was staying, and the number of people who called during Sunday and Monday testified to the deep sympathy felt for the bereaved mother, thus deprived of her only child. The sympathy of the community was still further manifested by the very large attendance at the funeral, which took place on Monday at 3 p.m., to St. Paul's church, where the beautiful burial service of the Church of England was conducted by Rev Canon Low, assisted by Rev C. Saddington, of Richmond; thence to the 8th line cemetery.
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1892 - 1898 (5 years)
