“Last Monday afternoon, Henry Foster, son of OD Foster1, of West Front street, in company with a playmate names Joe Hornung, were in swimming in the Ohio river, just below the mouth of the Scioto, when young Foster suddenly disappeared. Young Hornung got out of the water as quickly as he could, and went home and told his parents that he and Henry Foster were swimming, and that Henry had gone under and hadn’t come up yet when he left, and he guessed he must have drowned. Mr. Hornung went with his boy and informed Mr. Foster of what his son had told him, and they, with several others hastened to the spot and found to their sorrow that his story was true. Young Hornung was too much excited to give an intelligent account of where he had seen Harry sink, but the crowd at once procured a seine and dragged the river in the vicinity of where his clothes lay on the bank, but all their efforts to find the body were unavailing.”
“It is supposed that young Foster had been playing in the water near the shore, and had ventured too far out and had gone over the ‘jump off,’ and being unable to swim had sunk to rise no more.”
“The unfortunate boy was about thirteen years of age, and was a bright, intelligent lad. The parents are deeply affected at the loss of their darling boy, and have the sympathy of a large circle of friends in their sad bereavement.”
“Later- Since the above was put in type the body of young Foster was found floating in the river, near Concord, Kentucky. The Captain of the Bonanza telegraphed Mr. Foster and he went down, but the corpse was buried before he got there. From the description given Mr. Foster he is certain that it is his son, and will soon have the body taken up and removed to this city.”2
*Editor’s Note: Otho Davis “OD” Foster, father of Henry, and Joseph Hornung, father of Joe Hornung, served together in Battery L 1st Ohio Light Artillery during the American Civil War.
- Otho D. Foster
- Neath the Waves: Henry Foster is Drowned While in Swimming With a Playmate. (1882, August 12). Portsmouth Times, p. 3.
