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- SOURCE: Moline Dispatch Newspaper, Moline, Rock Island County,Illinois ? Thursday, 04 July 1929. ARTICLE TITLED: ?Moline Boy andGirl Missing: Fear Drowning Last Seen on Dam In Mississippi At 10P.M. ---- Howard Hancock, 4002 River Drive, and Miss JessieMarks, 315 Fifty-fourth street, bot 16 years old, drowned inMississippi river last night, it was feared today when no trace ofthem could be found. The boy and girl had been missing for aboutfourteen hours as the Dispatch went to press this noon. Anxiousrelatives and friends searched the river in boats all morning, butfound no clue to the disappearance. Young Hancock and Miss Marks leftthe home of Hancock?s parents about 9:45 last night, saying that theyintended to row to the wind dam, opposite Forty-eighth street, Moline. The wing dam is about a mile northeast of the Hancock home. Theystated that they would return in an hour. Miss Marks believed thather sisters, Mrs. Virgil Mattson and Mrs. Roy Whitback, and theirhusbands, and Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Mattson, all of Moline, intended tohave a moonlight fishing party at the dam. Mr. and Mrs. VirgilMattson did make a trip to the dam in a row-boat, but did not seeHancock or Miss Marks. Clifford Brenstrom, 432 Forty second Street,was fishing on the wing dam last night and this morning reported thatHancock and Miss Marks arrived at the dam shortly after 10. Theyjoined Brenstrom in building a bonfire on the dam. Brenstrom saysthat young Hancock and Miss Marks were still there when he left about10:30. Fear Swift River Current. It is possible that their boat wasdrawn into a swift eddy, pulled through a gap in the dam walls andhurled into the rapids near the shore, men familiar with the riverthere said. A rowboat would have little chance to stay afloat in the?chutes?, as they are called. Miss Marks could not swim, but Hancockwas reported to be a good swimmer. The river was as smooth as it everis at the time the young couple left in the boat. About 2 thismorning the water became rough. Mr. and Mrs. Hancock at that timecalled at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Mattson to inquire if MissMarks had returned there. An intensive search along the shores for aderelict boat has been made from daybreak until this noon, when thehunt was being continued. A. E. Anderson, city chemist, was using hismotorboat to aid in the search. Mis Marks was born and reared inHampton, but had lived for some time with her sister andbrother-in-law at 315 Fifty-fourth street. Her parents moved toMoline from Hampton two weeks ago. Her mother is critically ill andit was feared that the news of Jessie?s disappearance would bringserious results.?
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