Another article (excerpt):
Here is another published account, a fragment of clipping found among the papers of Mary (Lillard) Simmons, niece of Ed Lillard, the boat's fireman who died after the explosion; unknown publication, 1896:
". . . cabin, and a messenger was dispatched to Alton in a light yawl to fetch a physician. The tirelss [sic] fellow rowed the eight miles in wonderful time, and shortly after his arrival Mr. H. M. Schweppe's yacht Nina left for the scene of the disaster with Dr. W. A. Haskell and Mr. Schweppe's son, Rand.
"Meantime the Lamb, helpless from the collapse of the flues in her starboard boiler, had drifted with her tow to Illini Island, where the Nina found her, and Dr. Haskell immediately hurried up to the wounded men in the cabin. He found them suffering pains that were well-nigh unbearable, and the poor fellows were black and bloody with burns. Their moanings were heart-rending, and it was some time before the Doctor could sufficiently ease their pains to quiet them.
"Captain Skemp cannot account for the collapse of the steamer's flues. . . ."
On Mar 29, 2007, at 11:49 AM, Erik Thorson wrote:
My great-great uncle, Edgar Lillard, was a fireman on the steamboat Artemus Lamb. He died of his injuries from a boiler explosion in 1896. I have a high-quality scan of a postcard photo of the Artemus Lamb and several newspaper articles about the accident. Would these be of interest to you or to others for your steamboats.com website? If so, I would be happy to send them to you.
Best regards,
Erik Thorson
Nori Muster wrote:
Hi Erik,
Thanks for your letter. I apologize for the delay, but the old email box fills up with steamboat mail and I have to get to it when I have time. It's my hobby. I would be honored to post your info. Please send the jpgs along with captions as you want them to appear. A good size for jpgs is 600 pixels at the widest (height or width) and 72 dpi.
I will post them in the Online Steamboat Museum here: https://steamboats.com/museum/index.html
Nori
On Feb 25, 2009, at 4:36 PM, Erik Thorson wrote:
Wow, you wrote back a LONG time ago (almost two years!), but I never sent the info. Better late than never, here is the info. First is a postcard of the Artemus Lamb followed by an obit from the Edwardsville (IL) Intelligencer and an obit from the Clinton (IL) Public.
Erik Thorson
On Feb 25, 2009, at 5:43 PM, Nori wrote:
Ha ha, your inbox is like mine!! I will email back when posted. Thank you Erik.
That is a horrifyingly tragic story about your great-great-uncle. What is it like to know that steamboats did that to your ancestor? When did you find out about it? I have done some research into my family tree. My first husband had the most violent and colorful story: an ancestor who was minting gold coins for Mary Queen of Scots during the siege of Edinburgh Castle in the 1500s. When the British took the castle, they quartered him and hung his body in the market square. History is vicious.
Nori
On Feb 26, 2009, at 12:21 PM, Erik Thorson wrote:
Nori -
Thanks. . . . the newspapers certainly were a lot more graphic in their details a century ago, weren't they? [I found out about this] after my grandmother's death in 1976. She was Ed Lillard's niece . . . I didn't really research the incident until a few years ago, though. I collected the articles I sent to you and I have also found out that the Waterways Journal (which is available on microfilm through the University of Missouri at St. Louis on interlibrary loan) has at least eight different articles published between March 1896 and February 1897 that mention the Artemus Lamb accident or my relative Ed Lillard. I have never gotten around to getting that microfilm, however.
Well, being quartered is at least a little bit better than being drawn and quartered. When they were quartered, they were usually hung first then their body was cut into four pieces. When they were "drawn" first, they cut a slit in their bellies and drew out their intestines while they were still alive. Nice, huh?
Erik
On Feb 26, 2009, at 12:38 PM, Nori wrote:
Yeah nice. From what I heard, they cut off his arms and legs, then hung him from the market cross. We visited that spot.
Nori
