458 HISTORY OF CO H ASSET. 



except what was woven across the old-fashioned bed 

 frames to hold the mattresses. A piece of this was cut 

 and pulled out by nervous fingers through the meshes 

 and the holes into which it had been woven, while the 

 men were struggling to save themselves in the chilly 

 water. 



Several of the men had raised themselves out of the 

 water upon the edge of the ice and crept their way drip- 

 ping to the shore. Stephenson and another man and the 

 poor woman (Mrs. Ephraim Snow) were still in the water. 

 One end of a bed cord was thrown out across the broken 

 ice, and Stephenson, quitting the sunken boat to which he 

 had been holding, swam for the line. He saw the hair of 

 Mrs. Snow's head upon the water, and seizing her, the 

 both of them were dragged to the edge of the firm ice. 

 Here a ladder was reached to them and the man held to 

 the ladder and to the woman until they were both pulled 

 upon the ice by some one who could reach them. Mrs. 

 Snow, limp and apparently lifeless, was taken to the 

 house, where she was chafed for hours until her life was 

 persuaded to return. 



All were saved but the three children, Drusilla and 

 Joshua, the children of Ephraim Snow, and little Henry 

 of four years, the son of Captain Henry Snow. These 

 three were taken from the bottom within a half hour 

 from the time they sank, but life had gone completely. 



Luther Stephenson was awarded a gold medal for his 

 heroic efforts by the Massachusetts Humane Society. 

 Silver ones were given to Newcomb Bates, Nichols 

 Tower, Thaddeus Lawrence, and the writer thinks to 

 others not known at present. It was a group of disasters 

 so distressing that a whole century has not effaced the 

 impression of it. The Gulf has seen more than these 

 tragedies, for at least three* persons have been drowned 

 in it by falling from the old tottering plank which crossed 



*One was Mary Delano, aged five years, August, 1815. 



