Norris - Robert - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Dr. Cissel last Thursday received a message apprising him of the death of Rev. Robert Norris, a young divinity student, who has been making his home with him here. Mr. Norris left this city Saturday, July 1, to attend to some ministerial work at Flackville. The following from the Indianapolis Journal is an account of his death:

“Robert Norris and Dora Farrington, of Flackville, a suburb west of the river, were drowned yesterday afternoon in the artificial lake at Zionsville Park, within a few feet of two boatloads of people and within sight of eight hundred people on the shore. No help was given the two young people. The man gave up his life trying to save the girl. Robert Norris was a young Irishman, only two years in this country and had been attending DePauw University and preaching at the Methodist Church at Flackville. He and Miss Farrington, with a party of other Flackville people, joined with the Sunday schools of the Methodist, Christian and Baptist Churches of Haughville in a picnic at Zionsville Park.

In the afternoon Norris, E. R. Haislup and Miss Harrington, of Flackville, and Miss Minnie Goodlet and Miss Maud Wood, of Haughville, went for a boat ride on the lake. The party was a merry one and enjoyed the ride thoroughly. Norris was once a sailor and his experience made him an expert oarsman. In riding over the lake the boat came under a wire cable which stretched from shore to shore. A swing hangs on this cable by a wheel and a crowd of picnickers were amusing themselves riding back and forth on the swing. Miss Carrie Foodrey and Miss Florence Lampert, of Haughville, got into the swing and started for the ride across the lake. They saw the boat in their way and screamed for Norris to row to one side. The swing rushed over the wire too quickly, however, and the feet of one of the young women struck Miss Farrington. She was thrown to one side and could not recover her balance. She slipped out of the boat into the water. She did not scream for help; she was not heard to utter a word. Norris exclaimed, “Oh, Dora!” and dropped the oars. Without a moment’s hesitation he jumped out of the boat and threw his arms around Miss Farrington. They both went under the water. When they came up he looked appealingly about him. The boat in which he and Miss Farrington had been in had shot many feet away from the force of his jumping off it. Another boat, containing Rev. Joseph Stout, of Wesley Chapel, Haughville, and Miss Estelle Miller, daughter of Hiram Miller, of Flackville, was a few feet away. Miss Farrington was choked with water and struggled madly. Norris could not swim with her grasp about him, though he was known as a strong swimmer. They sank again and came to the surface. Mr. Stout thrust out an oar and Norris grabbed at it, but missed. His strength was about gone and he cried despairingly, “Oh fools, fools, why don’t you help us?”

Miss Farrington, in her struggling, threw Norris’ coat over his head. This was the end. The two sank clasped in each other’s arms and were seen no more, until their bodies were brought up by divers.

“Mr. Haislup cannot row a boat well and cannot swim, he says. The reason he did nothing toward helping Norris and Miss Farrington was because an oarlock broke, and he could not cover the thirty feet that separated his boat from the young man and the young woman. Mr. Stout is as unskillful as Mr. Haislup, it is stated. He did not throw an oar to Norris because he was afraid he could not row back to shore with Miss Miller with one oar. Both the men were as excited as the women. Neither of the men did anything to help young Norris. The two unskillful oarsmen slowly rowed back to shore. It was not until then that anyone went out to undertake the task of recovering the bodies. Twelve or fifteen men rowed out to the spot where the two young people were drowned and dived for the bodies. In six minutes Miss Farrington’s body was brought up, and in ten more the body of young Norris was dragged into a boat.

Miss Farrington’s father, W. L. Farrington, a dealer at the stock yards, was notified of the death of his daughter. He took a buggy and drove to the park from Flackville. The body of the girl and that of the brave young preacher who tried to save her were taken to Flackville in hearses. The eight hundred picnickers sadly went to their wagons and to their homes. Miss Farrington’s body was taken to her home. Mr. Norris’s body was taken to the home of Hiram Miller, In Flackville, where he had stopped when he preached at the little church.” - thanks so much to "S" who has typed a wonderful amount of obits for this ever-growing-site