Sunday, August 29, 1819

The Boat A large skiff owned by Bernard Cole of North Adolphustown. He and his wife survived, as did his son, Conrad. His daughter, Mary, was one of the victims. With the exception of the Cole parents, all of those in the boat were young people.
Ten Died Peter Lent Bogart – born April 14 1802, died age 17. Lived on the Bogart Homestead; the east half of Lot 21, Conc 4, North Adolphustown, the fifth child of Abraham Bogart and Mary (‘Polly’) Lazier. Abraham had received the crown deed to the 100 acre parcel in 1804. Peter was reputed to be a good swimmer, but in trying to save others, went down when they clung to him. It is said that he was to be married to Jane German (another victim) and perished while trying to save her. Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Clark – a bit of a mystery. There may possibly be a connection to Elias Clark of Adolphustown, or, to William Clark, who lived in Fredericksburgh. Mary Cole – born in 1803, died age 16. A daughter of Bernard & Isabella Cole, she was engaged to marry Joseph Johnson of Prince Edward County. It is said she had a “presentment” of a sudden death the previous night. Jane Sophia Detlor – born January 24, 1807, died age 12, a daughter of John Detlor [1769-1813] and Jerusha Simmons [1763-1847] and a sister of Mary. The Detlors lived in Fredericksburgh Township, Concession 5, Lot 24. John Detlor received the crown deed for the west half of the lot, and his wife Jerusha, received the crown deed for the east half, each 100 acres, both in 1803. Jerusha also received the east of lot 21 in Concession 6 at the same time. Mary Jerusha Detlor - born November 10, 1798, died age 21, another daughter of John Detlor [1769-1813] and his wife, Jerusha Simmons [1763-1847] and a sister of Jane. Jane German – born c1801, died age 18, a daughter of Christopher ‘Stophel’ German, a local preacher, and his wife, Catherine VanOrden. Christopher German had received the crown deed for 200 acres on Lot 22, Concession 4 in Adolphustown Township in 1798. John German – born c1898-9, died age 20, a son of Christopher ‘Stophel’ German and Catherine VanOrden and brother of Jane. John was reported to be a good swimmer, went back to help, became disoriented and swam around until he sank from exhaustion. It was the next day before his body was recovered. Huldah Madden – It has been said that Huldah was the daughter of James and Hester Madden, but according to T.W. Casey’s records, Huldah was a sister to Stants Sager Madden and therefore would be the daughter of Robert Madden and Charity Diamond. The Robert Madden family lived on Conc. 6, E ½ Lot 24, Fredericksburgh Township, near the Ernestown boundary. Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ McCay – born Sept 15 1798 and died at the age of 20, Betsy was the daughter of Samuel McCay [1770-1847] and Amarilla Hawley [1774 -1833] Matilda Roblin – Matilda was born c1801 and died age 18, a daughter of Rev. John Palen Roblin [1771-1813] and Mary Moore [1774-1832]. Notes on the Burials: Eight of the victims were buried side by side in the church cemetery. Matilda Roblin was supposedly buried beside her father, John Roblin in the same cemetery. Mary Cole was buried in the Gosport Cemetery in North Adolphustown.
Eight Survived
Cole Gravestone in the Gosport Cemetery	Bernard Cole [1769-1854] was the owner of the skiff. He, his wife and son were saved, but he lost his daughter, Mary. Bernard died October 5, 1884 at the age of 91 years and is buried in the Gosport Cemetery in North Adolphustown. He was a son of the Loyalist, Daniel Cole. Isabella Cole (nee Blakely) [1777-1855], the wife of Bernard, was found floating on her back unconscious, but was resuscitated. She died on May 15, 1855, aged 80 years and is buried with her husband in the Gosport Cemetery, North Adolphustown.
Conrad Cole – born in 1806 in Adolphustown, the son of Bernard Cole, which meant he was only 12 or 13 at the time of the tragedy. He was twice married and the father of nine. He died in North Fredericksburgh November 17 1882. Peter German – said to be a good swimmer. Peter jumped out of the boat in order to lighten the load, and in doing so, stepped on the edge and tipped the boat so that the water poured in over the top. Became a local preacher. Joseph Johnson – According to the account given by his son [see article below], Joseph was said to be an expert swimmer and jumped out of the boat to lighten the load, then returned to save the three remaining members of the Cole family. It has been stated that he and Mary Cole had planned to marry. The other three survivors have not been confirmed.
Those Who Didn’t Get in the Boat Gilbert Bogart - Feeling there was so much danger he went away crying because his brother, Peter, refused to get out also. Peter was one of the victims. [T.W. Casey Article 1897] Eliza Bellnap – Aged 12 at the time and staying with William Casey. Casey told her to wait, due to the number of people already in the boat, and he would take her across himself (account below).
The Witnesses Mrs. Andrew Lott, an old lady from Sidney was a witness of that tragedy and is probably the last survivor of them all. She is now ninety-five years of age and is yet enjoying good health. She was then a girl of twelve years. Her maiden name was Eliza Bellnap. She was then living with William Casey, of Casey’s Point, three farms west of Bernard Cole’s from where the fated company started to cross Hay Bay. When Mr. Casey saw how many were going in Cole’s small boat he told Eliza to wait and he would take her and his own daughter across in his boat. She owed her safety to that fact. The old lady describes vividly the whole affair. There were, she says, eighteen in the boat, which so overloaded it as to cause it to spring a leak; they had no bailing dish, so the young men and some of the ladies took their hats to help bail; but the water came in faster than they could dip it out. John German, one of the young men in the boat, was a good swimmer and jumped out to lighten the boat but in doing so was the direct cause of the upsetting. Then followed a heart rending scene. They were only three hundred yards from shore on which stood hundreds of witnesses, who could render no aid. Ten out of the eighteen were drowned. [DBW July 3 1902] [Abram Diamond] saw the drowning on Hay Bay.  Was in the Meeting House heard the cries, ran out and saw them hanging on to the boat, which would turn over; they would again climb up but the number kept getting less all the time. [William Canniff papers] Mrs. Maria Conger, of Picton, born on April 4th 1799, died on Friday last. She was one of the few living witnesses of the terrible scene that took place on Hay Bay, Aug. 20th, 1819. At that time a camp meeting was being held, and on Sunday the entire occupants of the boats while crossing were precipitated into the water. Two young men and eight young women were drowned. Nov 26 1892 Daily British Whig]
Sad Event at Hay Bay [History of Methodism in Canada by George F. Playter, 1862] The morning was fine and the sky with scarcely a cloud. While the pious members were coming to the chapel from Ernestown, Fredericksburgh and the southern parts of Adolphustown, the members and their families in the northern part and along the Napanee river, were also on their way. Adolphustown and more than half of Fredericksburgh are cut in two parts by a narrow bay called Hay Bay, running in from the Bay of Quinte waters. The land around the shore was early settled and the bay is now surrounded with good farm houses and fertile farms. On the south shore is the chapel; and to get there all from the north must cross the bay. Some had already crossed this morning; and others were about venturing out in boats and canoes. Among the rest, a company of eighteen young person, most of them pious and the fruit of the late revival, and belonging to the families living on the shore. They were all dressed in good and modest apparel as befitted the day and the house and worship of God. Buoyant with the cheerfulness of youth and the emotions of piety, they sang as they stepped into the boat and as they made progress to the other shore. The boat being rather leaky and so many pressing it too near the water’s edge, the water came in and increased fast and they had no vessel to bale with. Unhappily, the young men did not think of baling with their clean hats or did not like to do so, until it was too late. The boat filled and sunk when near the other shore and these eighteen young men and women, crying and shrieking, went down into the deep water. At the time of crossing, there was a prayer meeting begun in the chapel by those who came first. One was now engaged in prayer and had just uttered the petition that “it might be a day long to be remembered,” when a shriek was heard, another and another. The prayer was stopped and some ran up to the pulpit to look out and saw the youths struggling in the water. All ran to the shore and some plunged in to render assistance. Eight were taken to the shore. Ten bodies were yet in the water. A seine was prepared and so the bodies of these unhappy youth, a few hours so blithe and cheerful, were brought dripping to the land. One was not recovered till the next morning. Two young men were drowned and eight young women. Two were of the German family, two Detlors, one Bogart, one Roblin, one McCay, one Clark, one Madden and one Cole. The grief of the families, so suddenly bereaved, gathered together on the shore, gazing at the loved bodies, may be better imagined than described. The grief, too, was partook of by the large congregation assembled and the minister. No public worship was attended to, but preparations for the solemn funeral. Monday was a day of mourning. News of the disaster soon spread far and a great congregation was assembled. Nine coffins were laid in order outside the chapel. One of the corpses was buried in another grave-yard. Mr. Puffer took for the text, Job xix, 25-27, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” &c. He stood at the door and tried to preach to those within and without, but was so affected by the catastrophe, the weeping congregation and the coffined dead before him that he confessed he could not do justice to the subject or the occasion. But he offered consolation from the Gospel to the stricken families mourning. Next, the coffins of the youthful dead were opened, that friends and neighbours and young acquaintances, might take a last look and farewell. Six of the graves were in rotation and the coffins were placed in the same manner. The others were near departed friends in other parts of the ground. After the reading of the burial service, the graves, one after another, received the dead and then were closed up again, until the day when “the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.”
The Hay Bay Disaster [Daily British Whig Dec 21 1882] The Calamity that Befell a Boat Load of People in 1819, while Going to Church Mr. George S. Johnson, of Belleville, gives to the public an account of the terrible calamity which occurred in 1819, known as the "Hay Bay Disaster." The matter is brought prominently before the people by the death of the last survivor, Mr. Conrad Cole, of North Fredericksburgh. In the long ago, when our grandfathers lived, the settlements were sparse, neighbors few, and for miles around the settlers were intimately known, and most of them had either family or business relations. Anything like a disaster was an earthquake in the whole community, especially when the victims belonged to the best families. The circumstances of the dreadful catastrophe are as follows, says Mr. Johnson: It had been announced far and wide that the great Israel Puffer, Presiding Elder of the M.E. church, Midland District, and probably one of the greatest Biblical scholars of his day, was to hold Quarterly services on the 28th and 29th of Aug. 1819, in the oldest Methodist Church, situated on the south shore of Hay Bay. As was customary in those days METHODISTS CLOSED THEIR BUSINESS on Saturday at noon when Quarterly services were held, and with boats, wagons, on horseback or afoot, made their way to the place of meeting. They would stop with friends or acquaintances over night and until the services were over. On the Sabbath morning referred to 18 persons were gathered on the north side of Hay Bay, all anxious to reach the church before nine o'clock, for Love Feast. Among the number were the late Conrad Cole (then quite a lad) his father, his mother, his sister Mary and my father. Some said the two last were affianced, but of this my father never said anything definite. A boat was procured and the whole company embarked. Some demurred to the conveyance, but they finally agreed to proceed. A young man was given a tin dish to bail with, as the boat leaked badly. The company, as was customary in those days, engaged in singing the old Methodist songs. It was though the young man with the bailing dish became so much interested in the singing that before the boat was half way over he DROPPED THE DISH OVERBOARD and it went to the bottom. The water came in so fast that some of the men began bailing with their caps. This created a confusion. The women began to sway from side to side as the water rushed in. My father was a heavy man and an expert swimmer, so he purposed to lighten the boat. He took off his coat and boots, sprang overboard and started for the shore. Before he had proceeded far he heard a fearful shriek, and looking back he saw heads and hands pointing out of the water. He caught Miss Cole and took her to the boat, which was turned bottom up, and placed her upon it. He then swam to the other side, caught another young lady and was taking her to lock hands with Miss Cole across the boat, when two or three persons caught him with a death grip and drew him to the bottom, the water being some 20 feet. By a great effort he released himself from their grasp and came to the surface. Miss Cole had then disappeared, and was probably dragged down by the drowning ones. A few were trying to reach the shore. As my father CAME TO THE SURFACE, young Cole cried out, "Joseph, help me or I will drown!" Though somewhat exhausted my father swam to him and helped him ashore. Looking back he saw old Mr. Cole trying to save his wife. He caught a rail, went out again and brought them to the shore, thus saving three out of the four Coles in the boat. There were eight saved and ten lost. What a change a few minutes can make in our feelings and destinies! No happier company ever started to cross one of the most beautiful pieces of water in Canada than the company that embarked in a leaky boat that beautiful Sabbath morning. In a short time afterwards ten of the number lay rigid in death on the shore, while fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends and neighbors RENT THE AIR WITH CRIES and lamentations, and like Rachel of old refused to be comforted. Instead of a quarterly service Rev. Mr. Puffer next day conducted one of the most solemn funerals ever witnessed in the Bay of Quinte region. His text - Job xix:26 - was the foundation for a grand discourse. Most of the bodies were laid near the old meeting house and some were buried elsewhere. Almost the last place I drove my late father was to visit Conrad Cole, about seven years ago. Some four or five weeks ago, happening in the neighborhood, I called on Mr. Cole. He was then working in the garden. When I spoke to him he did not at first recognize me, but when he did he grasped my hand and said, "I am glad to see you, George." He led me to his pleasant home, and as we rested he exclaimed "This is a son of the man that saved my life." Never will I forget my last visit with "Uncle Conrad." Little did I think when taking dinner with him and his kind partner, and thinking over the past, that it would be our last meeting on earth. I was shocked to hear that in so short a time he had gone. The Cole family were among the pioneers of our country, and settled near my grandfather about the beginning of the present century.