![]() During my investigation into the tragedy, I interviewed the son of the only survivor. Lenough, however, found a grip on a deeply-loaded coal flat and was able to hang on tightly until he was pulled from the river and survived. Silver Street, the only road going to the river from atop the bluff, was originally a trail carved into the clay by the Spaniards when the flag of Spain waved over the city.Ĭharles West and the school teacher also disappeared beneath the maul of the Mississippi. As the witness stared at the terrible sight, the red ringlets slowly slipped below the surface, and Kate Schwartz was no more among the living. An eyewitness watching the horror from ashore reported seeing the long, red tresses of Miss Schwartz floating atop the murky water. What happened at that moment? From what I uncovered when I lived in Natchez in the early 1990s and began exploring the fate of the lovely Kate and her friends, somehow, the small craft overturned throwing the couples into the swift current of the muddy Mississippi River. Lenough, and his date were having an incredible adventure until the moment something went suddenly wrong. We can only imagine that Kate, Charles West, Mr. Perhaps a livery rented them and did a brisk business during the seasons when frolicking on the Mississippi River was a favorite pastime for the folks who followed Silver Street to the water. It wasn’t long before the two happy couples boarded a “tender” wooden boat. Her date, a fellow by the name of “Lenough,” was tall and lanky with long arms that would prove their benefit later in the day. The other young woman was a school teacher from a nearby city who moved to Natchez soon after receiving her teaching certificate. The other couple accompanying Kate and Charles were undoubtedly close friends of theirs. Still, plenty of room remained between the barges and the shore for many skiffs, jonboats, and other tiny watercraft on which others from the city frolicked upon the water. Kate Schwartz’s home on North Union Street, Natchez Mississippi.īeneath the loess cliffs, on the swift currents of the Mississippi River, the O’Brien fleet of wooden coal barges covered most of the waterfront flowing past Natchez-Under-the-Hill. They were the proprietors of a prosperous coal business which supplied the fossil fuel to the community, and most profitably, to the many steamboats poking alongside the O’Brien fuel flats hungry for the black gold. Across South Broadway Street, which ran parallel to the river atop the escarpment, was the three-story Swiss chalet home of the J. From where they met, Silver Street, the only road going to the river from atop the bluff, was originally a trail carved into the clay by the Spaniards when the flag of Spain waved over the city. But Kate would hear none of her mother’s pleas, so as soon as Charles knocked on the front door, Kate bounded out the portal for the short walk to Silver Street arm-in-arm with her affianced inamorato.Ītop the steep, clay loess bluff on which Natchez-on-the-Hill stood for nearly 200 years, another young couple awaited their arrival. Schwartz’s apprehension quickly became so distressing that she pleaded with her daughter to stay home and away from the great river that gave life and livelihood to the city. ![]() Although Charles would soon become her son-in-law, Mrs. In Natchez, Mississippi, where the Mississippi River was the main method of communication with the world beyond the isolated community, this was especially true.Īs Kate hurriedly dressed and hardly touched her breakfast, her mother felt uneasy about the idea of her daughter going on the river with Charles, the handsome son of their family dentist, Dr. In the days before electronic entertainment and the abundance of motor vehicles ready to whisk restless youths miles from home, rivers were a primary source of thrilling amusement and social enjoyment. On the morning of the 13th of May, 1911, lovely twenty-one-year-old Kate Schwartz brushed the last tangles from her long red locks.
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