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Chase County Kansas Obituaries
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Willey, Fred D & Brennan, Frank P
TWO STRONG CITY BOYS DROWN IN COTTONWOOD
Fred Willey and Frank Brennan, son and son-in-law of F H Willey were skating and struck thin spot.
FRED'S DOG GAVE ALARM
The largest funeral in the history of Strong City or within the history of its oldest citizens, yesterday marked the burial of two Strong City youths, Fred D Willey and Frank P Brennan, son and son-in law of Mr. and Mrs. F H Willey, who were drowned in the Cottonwood River, last Friday evening.
A funeral procession including more than a hundred cars, which made it considerably more than mile in length, slowly wound its way from the Church of Christ in Strong City to the Strong City cemetery yesterday afternoon.
Friday evening, about 5 o'clock, James George who lives near the southend of Strong City, was attracted by the loud and consistent barking of a dog in the neighborhood of the river just back of his residence. He made his way in that direction and when he reached the river, he found the dog swimming around in the water in a hole broken in the ice which covered the river.
The dog did not seem to be trying to get out or could not, so Mr. George, using a long pole with a hook, caught the collar of the dog and lifed him to the bank. Then it was he who noticed two shinney clubs on the ice near the spot where it was broken and recognized the dog as the one belonging to Fred Willey. He instantly turned in the alarm and it was very few minutes until men had started the work of recovering the bodies, but it was until two hours later before the second body was taken from the water. And another dog has earned its way to martyrdom.
The young men had been skating for an hour or two and at the time of the accident were coming toward this city. The marks of skates on the ice were very few for the ice had just formed and not many people had yet ventured on, and from the marks, it would appear that the youth who was nearest the east bank of the river as they passed behind the Doolittle residence and approached the point behind the George home, broke through the thin ice about fifteen feet from the bank and the other, seeing the peril turned around and came back to his assistance and getting near the edge of the ice, it also broke and let him into the freezing water. The ice just at that point was undoubtedly too thin to support a person who tried to lift himself from the water onto the ice, and would only let him back down for it was only about one-half or three-quarters of an inch thick.
The ice on most parts of the river was at the time about two inches, or a little greater in thickness, but just at this point which appeared to be no thinner to the eye, a quantity of oil had gathered as the ice froze, which, staying at the top of the water as it would, kept the ice from freezing to as great a depth.
That is a feature that possibly no one had thought of previously, but that will make the river treacherous and not at all dependable for skating purposes this winter.
Fred Wiley was nearing his twenty-second birthday. And all of his years had been spent in the community which is now grieving over his very untimely death. He was born September 7th 1900, at Strong City. He attended the public school in Strong City and the county high school in this city. Since that time he had spent much of his time in his father's business in Strong City.
He leaves besides his parents, Mr and Mrs F H Willey, a brother and three sisters. And every one who knew him was his friend. The youth of Strong City had known him as a boy's boy -- as one of the best skaters and one of the best swimmers of their acquaintances -- an active and healthy boy who was just entering the world of manhood with a life of usefulness before him.
Chase County Leader News, Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, Dec 27 1921.
by Lorna Marvin
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