Two Boys Drowned

One of the Deaths was at Freehold and the Other at Mount's Mills

Two boys were drowned near Freehold last week. One of the boys was Freeman Thompson, aged twelve years. He was the son of Edward Thompson of Freehold. He had gone in swimming in lake Topanemus near Freehold on Tuesday morning in company with seven other boys. Some of the boys had got permission from their parents to go in swimming, and the others had played hookey and had gone with them. Thompson was not much of a swimmer and was drowned in about four feet of water. His companions tried to save him, but they were afraid of being pulled down by him.

The other boy who was drowned was Floyd Schanck Conover, the four-year-old son of G. Denise Conover, who lives on the D. V. Perrine place at Mount's Mills, near Freehold. Floyd and his mother were preparing to go to the funeral of the infant child of Daniel Briggs, Mrs. Conover's brother, when this accident occurred. Mrs. Conover and Floyd had called on a neighbor for a moment, and while the women were talking the boy wandered away and fell in the pond. His mother missed him and saw his hat floating on the pond. She began to scream and her husband learning of the accident, waded in the pond and recovered the body.

Source: Red Bank Register, Wednesday, June 22, 1898

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• New Jersey Genealogy Queries - CousinConnect.com

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• - Death-Records.net

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