Drowned ---Loss of the Wyly

Mr. W. J. Rivers, clerk of the steamer Wyly which was sunk at Fort Gaines, on the Chattahoochee on Wednesday night and was among the drowned, was a brother of Mrs. G.P. Keys of this city. He was a son of Rev. Dr. Rivers, now of Greenville. Mr. H.L. Palmer, the purser, also drowned, and he was city editor of the Columbus Enquirer for several years. Their sad and untimely deaths will be deeply regretted wherever they were known.

Col. James M. Russell of Columbus was one of the passengers. Mr. Rivers leaves a wife and four or five daughters and the family lives at Iola, Florida. Mr. Palmer leaves a lovely young wife to whom he was recently married.

And now the crew and survivors of the Wyly have just reached the city. They bring the most horrible and agonizing details of the manner in which the crew and passesngers were saved. Nearly all of them floated down the mad stream in the midnight darkness for miles, some of them thus going on the perilous journey for six or eight miles. Anything that they could reach was used as floats - barrels, stick of wood, and life preservers.

"Drowned -- Loss of the Wyly," The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama), 14 Apr 1883, page 4; http//www.newspapers.com; accessed 25 Oct 2021.∼William Stratton Jones Rivers was the son of Dr. Richard Henderson Rivers, D.D., and his wife Martha Bolling Cox Jones Rivers. He married Sarah "Sallie" Dandridge Nickels on 17 SEP 1866, in Montgomery AL. He was name for his maternal grandfather, William Stratton Jones. His full name and date of birth came from the family's Bible.

His date of death came from the NSDAR application of his first child, Edna Alberta Rivers Charlton; and is confirmed by reports in the "Columbus Enquirer Sun" for April 13, 15 & 17, 1883, and "Shockley's Independent Escort Company", compiled by Morgan S. Gilmer, (Montgomery AL: Woodruff Co Printers), 1905, archived at the Alabama Department of Archives & History and posted at Ancestry.com. The details about the demise of the steamboat on which he was serving and the handling of his body were also published in "Lauderdale News", "The Columbia Recorder", "The Eufaula Daily Times", "The Montgomery Advertiser", "The Pulaski Citizen", and "The Times and News" (Eufaula AL).

He drowned while serving as a clerk on the steamboat "George W. Wylly", when it struck the Fort Gaines bridge across the Chattahoochee River (Clay County GA), on 11 APR 1883. His body was never found. Thus there is no grave at Jehu Cemetery, Wewahitchka FL, where his wife and son were buried.

Thank you to Brenda Arnett Darbyshire for the gravestone photo.

From "Drowned -- Loss of the Wyly", The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama), 14 APR 1883, page 4, available online at newspapers.com and provided by Contributor #47975580.

Mr. W. J. Rivers, clerk of the steamer Wyly which was sunk at Fort Gaines, on the Chattahoochee on Wednesday night and was among the drowned, was a brother of Mrs. G. P. Keys of this city. He was a son of Rev. Dr. Rivers, now of Greenville. Mr. H. L. Palmer, the purser, also drowned, and he was city editor of the Columbus Enquirer for several years. Their sad and untimely deaths will be deeply regretted wherever they were known.

Col. James M. Russell of Columbus was one of the passengers. Mr. Rivers leaves a wife and four or five daughters and the family lives at Iola, Florida. Mr. Palmer leaves a lovely young wife to whom he was recently married.

And now the crew and survivors of the Wyly have just reached the city. They bring the most horrible and agonizing details of the manner in which the crew and passengers were saved. Nearly all of them floated down the mad stream in the midnight darkness for miles, some of them thus going on the perilous journey for six or eight miles. Anything that they could reach was used as floats - barrels, stick of wood, and life preservers.