McKeesport Daily News Mar 9, 1908 - McKeesporter's Narrow Escape - Thomas Smith's Thrilling Experience in Stella Moren Disaster - Clings to Cribbing - Survivor's Story of Doomed Steamer's Plunge Over the Dam. Jumping to the cribbing of the dam a few seconds before the ill-fated Stella Moren went over and collapsed at Lock No 2 last Saturday night, Thomas Smith of Parker street, this city, with a desperation born of determination to cheat the rushing waters of the Monongahela of another victim, won a battle for life. With Smith was Joseph Moore, of Elizabeth. Moore and Smith used every ounce of their strength in clinging to the cribbing until they were rescued. Smith and Moore realized, probably a few seconds sooner than other members of the crew, some of whom were drowned and others who were carried a distance on wreckage and rescued, that the boat was doomed. They leaped to the cribbing almost as the boat went over the dam and collapsed. Smith and Moore found themselves close to John Cox, the chief engineer who was badly injured and whose body was caught in the wreckage. They heard his heart-rending appeals for aid, but were unable to succor him, much as they desired to do so. Cox died a few hours after being rescued and two others were drowned. It was one of the worst accidents that has occurred on the Monongahela in years. Mr. Smith, scantily clad, came to this city on a street car, being compelled to take a round-about route which required several hours, during which his wife and children and other relatives were anxious. It was the second close call for Mr. Smith in a year. During the big flood of March 1907, Mr. Smith was second engineer on the WC Jutte, which sank in the Allegheny river. That day Mr. Smith had his little daughter, Dolly, who is about seven years old, out with him for a ride. When the boat began to sink Smith's first thought was of his child. He placed her on his shoulders and as the boat was sinking and the water covering his legs he held her over his head until a rescuer lifted her to an upper deck, when he climbed up and both were placed in boats before the larger boat finally went down. Mr. Smith's relatives do not want him to return to the river and his second fight for life will likely cause him to return to mill work or seek other means of a livelihood. He was formerly employed in the W. Dewees Wood mill and is well known here, having been born in this city. He is a son of Henry Smith, who formerly resided in Sixth avenue, but who is now making his home with his son-in-law, William Momeyer, of Huey street. Mr. Smith was seen by a Daily News reporter after his return home. He said: "We had two barges of coal and had been given a signal to enter the lock. The current was strong and as the barges reached the entrance the current caught them and they began to swing outward. Strenuous efforts were made to get the barges inside the lock, but the current was master and with a suddenness that was appalling the boat and barges shot outward. I realized that nothing could save her and Moore and myself made ready to jump. We landed on the cribbing of the dam and managed to cling to it. The boat collapsed with a loud report and immediately the air was filled with the groans of the men who had been dashed into the raging water. We could hear Mr. Cox and the others pleading for help. It was pitch dark. The voices of the struggling men, mingled with that of Cox, who was badly injured, arose over the noise made by the water and the cracking of the timbers. We feared every man would drown, but as the cries for help continued, slowly dying out as the swift current pulled the men down the river, we had hopes that the men had managed to keep afloat by holding to the broken timbers of the Stella Moren, and this proved to be the case in the main." Smith saw two men making their way toward the Homestead side of the river and it is believed they were John Bush and Charles Lawrence, and that they reached the high wall there only to learn that there was no way to get to the top, it being perpendicular, and that they were drowned. Fremont Gilmore, a brother of the captain, and Miss Maude Jackson, the chambermaid, left the boat at Monogahela. Engineer Cox was 40 years old and resided at West Elizabeth. He was married and his widow and four children survive. John Bush, one of the two missing men believed to have been drowned, was married and his widow and several children survive. Charles Lawrence, the other missing man, was one of the oldest active rivermen of the district. He resided in Pittsburg and was 60 years of age. The men, besides Smith and Moore, who were rescued, are James Gilmore, captain, Mt. Lebanon; John Reed, fireman, Pittsburg; Clark Sheets, Elizabeth; WH Downer, John Dowlin, Thomas Tracey and Frank Shemple. Shemple is a Dakota farmer, who works on the river in the winter time. He had intended leaving the boat at Pittsburg and returning to his farm in Dakota. He could not swim a stroke and when the boat went over the dam he offered up a prayer for his deliverance. He was lucky enough to catch hold of a large timber and with others was rescued more than a hundred yards from the dam. Shemple says he will stick to farming. Grieving in utter helplessness for their husband and father, lost in the fatal steamboat wreck at lock No 2, near Braddock, Saturday night, a widowed mother and four small children, two of them who are at the point of death from scarlet fever, forms a pitiable group at west Elizabeth. They are the remaining members of the family of First Engineer John Cox, who was crushed to death by the broken timbers of the Stella Moren. Owing to the rigid quarantine maintained over the Cox home as a result of the contagion the mother and her children will not be permitted to attend the funeral of their dead. The body was removed to the home of a relative in West Elizabeth yesterday afternoon and the funeral will be held this afternoon. J Frank Tilley, Thomas O'Shell, Arthur Moren and Thomas Cavanaugh, representatives of the River Coal company, which owns the boat, have made an investigation of the accident and at a time when the water was high. The investigation will be carried further today, when the survivors will be called before the officials of the company. The Stella Moren is probably not a total loss. It is expected that she can be raised and rebuilt. No effort will be made to raise the boat until the water has fallen. The remains of Engineer Cox have been taken to his late home at West Elizabeth. His widow and five children survive. He was one of the best known residents of West Elizabeth.

McKeesport Daily News June 12, 1959 - Thomas W Smith of 2611 Riverview Ave., died yesterday in McKeesport Hospital. Friends are being received at the Hunter Funeral Home where services will be conducted tomorrow at 2:30 pm by the Rev MV Stone. Burial will follow in McKeesport and Versailles Cemetery. Mr. Smith was born March 25, 1875, in McKeesport, a son of the late Henry Clay and Ellen Morris Smith. He was a retired marine engineer and was a member of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association and Alliquippa Lodge 375, F. and AM. He was a member of the Coursin St. Methodist Church. Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Myrtle Stephens Smith; two sons, Thomas W. Smith Jr. of Akron, OH, and H. Sumner Smith of Montrose; two grandchildren; and a sister, Mrs. Mary E. McLane of Mt. Vernon.