In the summer of 1839, Florens was nearly drowned in the Hudson after falling from a rowboat during horseplay. His cap, and an envelope addressed to his father, floated down the river in the bottom of the skiff, but he was saved by the quick thinking of Capt. Spelman of the sloop Volant out of Providence, Rhode Island. Later that afternoon, the cap was returned to Florens by a boy. And shortly after that, the same boy delivered the envelope to the father. In it was a three hundred dollar remittance – a fortune in those days. Amazingly, Capt. Spelman was said to have rescued a second man from drowning that very day. He died from typhus after weeks of fever and delirium. (Memoir of the Rev. Stephen R. Smith, Sawyer, T.J., 1852. Also, Evangelical Magazine & Gospel Advocate, Utica NY, 1 May 1846)
In the summer of 1839, Florens was nearly drowned in the Hudson after falling from a rowboat during horseplay. His cap, and an envelope addressed to his father, floated down the river in the bottom of the skiff, but he was saved by the quick thinking of Capt. Spelman of the sloop Volant out of Providence, Rhode Island. Later that afternoon, the cap was returned to Florens by a boy. And shortly after that, the same boy delivered the envelope to the father. In it was a three hundred dollar remittance – a fortune in those days. Amazingly, Capt. Spelman was said to have rescued a second man from drowning that very day. He died from typhus after weeks of fever and delirium. (Memoir of the Rev. Stephen R. Smith, Sawyer, T.J., 1852. Also, Evangelical Magazine & Gospel Advocate, Utica NY, 1 May 1846)
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