On May 23, 1902, the Harrisburg Daily Independent reported that two high school students from McKeesport, PA had drowned in the Youghiogheny River. Six of Marion Hamilton Skewis’ children died before she did – three childhood illnesses, a suicide, heart disease caused by childhood rheumatic fever, and then the devastating story that’s the subject of this blog.
This tragedy came out of the blue. Charles “Charlie” Skewis and his friend, Kent McCarty, had just finished their McKeesport High School final exams on the last day of school before summer break. They decided to celebrate by taking a boat out on the Youghiogheny River for a row. The boys were either joking around and rocking the boat, or the current rocked the boat, and both fell overboard. Before anyone could rescue the boys, they both drowned. The McKeesport Daily News reported that “many persons were eyewitnesses to the distressing accident” but that both drowned before help could reach them (McKeesport Daily News). Whether Charles and Kent couldn’t swim, or were caught in a current, I don’t know. But one article does begin with “Two more lives were lost at Devil’s Hollow here yesterday.” This area of the river was known to be deadly (Harrisburg Daily Independent).
In some ways this is a very familiar story. Teenagers engaging in risky behavior, followed by a preventable accident and heartache for their families. It was an especially familiar story in McKeesport. The boys fell into an area of the “Yough” (as the river is known) called the Devil’s Hole, which was upriver from the 13th street bridge and near the ice works. The Weekly Courier reported that the deepest part of the Youghiogheny along McKeesport was:
…”Devil’s Hole above the water works, which was the scene of many drownings in the past few years. It is eight feet deep, the deepest of any part of the river, which for years has been gradually getting narrower, owing to encroachments by corporations dumping into the river to create new territory.” (The Weekly Courier)
By July of 1905, the Pittsburgh Daily Post reported that Joseph Fairbaugh, who worked at the ice works along the river, said that he had had to recover 18 victims from the river during the previous few years – most of them teenage boys who drowned at Devil’s Hole.
McKeesport at that time was a thriving mill town. The Skewis family lived at 812 Park Street, not far from the river. Joseph Skewis was a master mechanic and superintendent of the roll turning department at the National Tube Works. The family would have been informed almost immediately about what had happened. This sudden, terrible news on a sunny afternoon in May could only have devastated them all.
Charles’ big brother, James, lived with his family in New Castle, PA. Just three weeks after Charles died, James’ wife Mollie also died suddenly. James never recovered from this double set of tragedies, but that’s another story.
My great grandfather John Skewis, Charles’ other big brother, would have heard the news a little more slowly. John, his wife Bina, and their four year old daughter, Marion (my grandmother), lived in Farmington, PA. Charles spent at least one summer, and probably more, living and working at the family farm in Farmington. My grandmother was little at the time, but would have known her Uncle Charles well. John and Bina’s first-born son, Joseph, also died suddenly in 1902 from, my grandmother thought, maybe whooping cough or diptheria.
The news was no less tragic for the family of Charles’ friend, Kent McCarty. Kent’s father had died several years earlier, and his mother worked as a milliner in Chambersburg, PA to support the family. Kent was living with an uncle in McKeesport while he attended school. He was leaving that afternoon to go home to spend the summer with his mother.
How did Marion bear the, to me, these unimaginable losses? Unless they wrote about it, it’s impossible to know how women actually grieved 120 years ago. It is true that in the past, childhood (and adult) mortality was higher. Almost everyone on my family tree lost children to childbirth, or disease, or accidents. It’s also true that for many their faith was very strong, and they had a definite sense that they would in time be reunited with their lost loved ones which would have provided some comfort. But regardless, it’s still impossible to understand the reserves of strength they drew on to bear not just one loss, but many. And it’s impossible to believe that they loved their children any less than we do, or that they didn’t experience terrible grief.
Charles T. Skewis is buried in the Homestead Cemetery in Allegheny. County, PA along with his parents and three of his brothers (findagrave).
Sources:
Drowned at McKeesport; 25 May 1902; Richmond Dispatch; Richmond, VA; retrieved from newspapers.com 20 Jul 2015
Fell Overboard and Drowned; 30 May 1902; People’s Register; Chambersburg, PA; retrieved from newspapers.com 01 Aug 2020
Griffith M. Hopkins Atlas Plat Map; 1900; Pittsburgh, PA
Lives Lost in Water; 07 Jul 1905; Pittsburg h Daily Post; Pittsburgh, PA; retrieved from newspapers.com 02 Aug 2020
Rocked Boat and Drowned; 24 May 1902; Harrisburg Daily Independent; Harrisburg, PA; retrieved from newspapers.com 20 Jul 2015
Skewis, Charles T; Find A Grave; retrieved from findagrave.com 01 Aug 2020
The Drowning of Two School Boys; 24 May 1902; McKeesport, PA; Vol 36, No. 123
The Navigable Yough; 11 Oct 1905; The Weekly Courier; Connellsville, PA; retrieved from newspapers.com 02 Aug 2020