Because we can, today's Old News reprints most of a report that appeared on Page 14 of the 32-page May 21, 1909, Arkansas Gazette.
It was sad news, reported in dismaying detail, but the account suggests how life along the Arkansas River has changed in 107 years. The report also suggests a person, an interesting person, with a faithful dog. I see him in my mind's eye.
To set the scene, remember that where today's Main Street Bridge glides from Little Rock to North Little Rock (Argenta), a different concrete bridge stood from 1924 to 1973. And before that, from 1897 to 1923, while the river was still relapsing and remitting, a flood or a marsh, Little Rockians crossed into Argenta using a wooden bridge supported by steel trusses pinned to concrete piers.
People called it "the free bridge," because they didn't have to pay to cross.
A photograph of this first bridge, shot in 1910, is in Steven and Ray Handley's book Around Little Rock: A Postcard History (1998) and online at bit.ly/1Outl2i. Before a yellow fever outbreak discouraged the practice, sporty people did exhibitions of fancy diving off the bridge.
Here's the story:
FALLS FROM FREE BRIDGE TO DEATH
The body of T.N. Woodrough of Little Rock, better known as T.N. Speedy, was found on a sandbar in the river on the Argenta side, under the free bridge, from which he had either fallen or thrown himself, early yesterday morning. The distance is 40 or 50 feet.
The body was first seen at 7:30 a.m. by Russell Miller, a boy, who was crossing the bridge. Miller informed bridge watchman, T.W. Doyle, who notified Patrolman Luther Lindsey of Argenta. Lindsey got out on the bar and examined the body, which he found to be still warm, then got help and carried it to the river bank, where it was removed to Bugg's undertaking rooms.
Speedy may have been dead two hours or more. The young bulldog, his constant companion, which had accompanied him to Argenta after midnight, came into Mike G. Forster's restaurant, where Speedy was employed as a waiter, at 4:30 in the morning. This is taken as indicating that Speedy disappeared from the dog's sight by jumping or falling from the bridge at about that hour.
There were no facts shown at the inquest held by Coroner Hodges that would throw light on the manner of Speedy's death, whether accidental, suicidal or
from foul play, but the jurymen, from the evidence and circumstances, inclined to the belief that it was accidental. Their verdict was "death from unknown causes."
WENT TO ARGENTA FOR 'A TIME'
Speedy had been working at Forster's restaurant since September 25 as a waiter, not steadily, for he had occasionally been laid off because of dissipation. He quit work at midnight Wednesday night and told the other waiters in the restaurant that he intended to go to Argenta to "fill up." His dog was with him when he left. Later on he telephoned from Argenta that he and his dog had drank a gallon of beer, and both were feeling fine.
Before going to Argenta, Speedy went to the home of Mrs. A.J. McClintock of 113 North Ringo street, where he had been living for two years. He had been drinking but was not intoxicated. Mrs. McClintock urged him to go to bed, but he told her he was going to Argenta. Later he called her by telephone and informed her that he was having a good time. To save being bothered by his telephone calls, she took down the receiver so that the bell would not ring. She heard nothing more of Speedy until informed of his death yesterday morning.
SHE CLAIMS TWO NAMES
Before the inquest Coroner Hodges asked Mrs. McClintock if Speedy was her husband. She replied that he was, but in giving her testimony when addressed by the coroner as Mrs. Speedy, she asked to be called Mrs. McClintock. She has two children, a son of 12 and a daughter of 10 years, both of whom regarded Speedy as their father and addressed him as such.
NO SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
There was no evidence shown at the inquest that Speedy was the victim of foul play. Watchman Doyle gave as his private theory that the man may have climbed up on the balustrade to sit down, and in his drunken condition fell off the bridge, which theory is held by others.
TURNED SOMERSAULT IN FALLING
Speedy's body was found two to three hundred feet from the north bank on a sandbar, and lay slightly under the bridge. His head was lying toward the west, indicating that he had turned a somersault in falling. [The Gazette here supplied some awfully icky coroner's observations that we will skip, but they supported the theory of a somersault.]
A FORMER CIRCUS PERFORMER
Speedy, who was 45 years old, was a former circus actor and performed as a tumbler and on horizontal bars. He was quick as a waiter, hence the nickname "Speedy," which he adopted. Mrs. McClintock said that his parents lived in Georgia, and he had two brothers in Hot Springs named Woodrough. They were notified and are expected to attend the funeral, which will be held from Mrs. McClintock's residence, 113 North Ringo street, this morning at 1 o'clock. ["Morning" is what the Gazette reported.] Rev. John T. Christian of the Second Baptist church will conduct the services, and the burial will be in Oakland cemetery.
Next week: "Can Find No Trace of the Meteorite"
ActiveStyle on 07/11/2016