From the CARLETON PLACE HERALD – April 1899.

The Appleton Bridge Goes Down and Carries Ab. Morphy, Jr. to a Watery Grave

    Yesterday morning, a few minutes after o'clock, a carriage load, consisting of Mr. John Lyons, wife and child, Mr. John Morphy, and wife, and Mr. Ab. Morphy, jr., all of Carleton Place, drove down to Appleton with the object of attending the funeral of Mr. Morphy’s aunt, Mrs. Dulmage. As they approached the bridge at Appleton they were warned that the structure was none too safe, and that it would be better to divide the load before driving across. This they did, Mr. and Mrs. John Morphy and the little boy and Mrs. Lyons getting out, the other two, Ab. Morphy and Mr. Lyons starting across with the carriage. On reaching the middle of the bridge, the structure gave away and allowed carriage, horses and all to drop into the stream below, which at present is much swollen with the spring freshets and very swift. For a moment the carriage remained, stationary, as though on bottom, and Mr. Lyons throw off his great coat and unhitched one of the horses, by which time the animals became impatient and plunged which took them out of the eddy caused by the pier and threw them into the swift current. Morphy, who was a good swimmer, struck out for one of the small piers nearby and just about reached it when the timbers of the bridge struck him and he sank out of sight. He was seen a few minutes later below the falls by Miss Beckett, with a hand upraised, land then sank out of sight. Lyons was carried down the stream with the current and over the falls, where a piece of timber struck him which he caught and clung to until rescued nearly half an hour later away down in the bay by Mr. A.E Teskey.

Mr. Lyons was almost exhausted when taken out and was at once conveyed to the home of Mr. J.A. Teskey, where restoratives were applied and medical aid was summoned He was very much chilled and received a tremendous nervous shock, besides the bruising he must have sustained in his fall and his passage over the falls and through the rapids, but was able to sit up in the afternoon and is almost fully restored the morning.

THE SEARCH FOR THE BODY

A search was immediately instituted to recover the body of Morphy, but it was o'clock in the afternoon before the remains were brought to the surface. They were found about 150 yards below the falls. The body was taken home to Carleton Place. The deceased young man was a son of Mr. Ab. Morphy, sen., and was 35 years of age. He was a brakeman on the C.P.R., and leaves a wife and four children to mourn his sudden call He was a young man of good repute and highly esteemed among his fellows, and the sympathy of the whole community flows out to the bereaved family in their deep sorrow. He was a member of the A.O.U.W. and the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen

THE BRIDGE

The bridge was a wooden structure which has weathered the breeze for many spring freshets, being built over forty years ago, and has for a long time been considered anything but safe. Beneath the long spans, bents were placed, but in the spring these would usually be damaged or carried away with the ice. On Saturday evening last the bent beneath the fatal span was taken away with the ice, and the bridge was temporarily strengthened by the pathmaster placing a timber above the bridge and chaining this to the stringer below. On Monday another prop went with the ice. As an evidence of the dangerous condition of the structure, the Ramsay Council at its last meeting receive a petition signed by 75 ratepayers, praying, for a new bridge, and a deputation backed up the petition. The result was a motion to ask for tenders for a new structure, but the action seems unfortunately to have been a day too late.

NOTES

The funeral has been fixed for tomorrow afternoon, at 3 o'clock, to Cram’s cemetery. It will be attended by the members of the A.O.U.W. and the Railway Trainmen

Both horses were drowned, and the carriage is a wreck. They belonged to Mr. John Campbell, liveryman of this town.

During the afternoon a number of the C.P.R. trainmen went down to Appleton to aid in the search for the body. Mr. J.R. Hamilton, in a conversation with Miss Mattie Beckett, ascertained about the spot where Mr. Morphy was last seen by her with his hand raised as he went down for the last time. He with Frank Towsley, took a boat and went directly to the spot, grappling the body at once on reaching it.

One of the horses was seen floating through Almonte late in the afternoon yesterday.

                                            AN INQUEST

Has been demanded, and is in progress this afternoon as we go to press.

           The Coroner's Jury Bring a Verdict of Culpable Negligence

"That said Abraham L. Morphy came to his death by drowning on the 17th day of April, 1899, when crossing the bridge at Appleton, over the Mississippi River, the bridge having given way. From the evidence obtained, and after consideration, we find that the said bridge has been in an unsatisfactory condition for the last year or more, and that the corporation of the township of Ramsay is guilty of culpable negligence.”