George, the 15-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Birch, was drowned in Bear
River about two miles south of town last Wednesday afternoon shortly after one
o’clock. George was helping put up hay on the Lauridsen ranch and after dinner
he and the two Lauridsen boys and a Jensen boy thought they would take a swim
before going to work.

After being in the water a short time they swam downstream until they came to a
sand bar. In walking off the bar George, who was evidently in the lead, suddenly
got beyond his depth and sank out of sight. He came to the surface and his
companions say he attempted to swim to shore, but he again went down, and before
the other boys were hardly aware of what had happened the river had claimed
George for a victim.

As soon as the boys could get into their clothes, they gave the alarm and a
number of men from town hurried to the scene and began the work trying to locate
the body. Those who dived into the water state it was ice-cold, three feet below
the surface. Powder and grappling hooks were used without avail, until about
midnight, when a hook which was being operated by Jack Bardole, caught around
the lad’s leg and the body was brought to the surface, and conveyed to the home
of his grief stricken parents. From the position in which the body was in it is
quite evident that he was taken with cramps when he first plunged into the deep
water.

George graduated from the eighth grade this year and expected to enter the high
school in September.

Besides his parents, he is survived by five brothers and four sisters. His
funeral services will be held at the First ward meeting house this afternoon at
2 o’clock.

Published in Montpelier Examiner newspaper in Montpelier, Bear Lake County,
Idaho, on Friday, July 23, 1915 on page 5
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