CAPTAIN ALEX ROWAN

Hartford Herald

April 17, 1912

CAPTAIN ALEX ROWAN

MET DEATH ON RIVER

Went to Watery Grave in a

Strange Accident - Well Known Here

Captain Alex H. Rowan, forty-seven years of age and one of the best known river men of this section of Green river, was drowned at 11 o'clock Saturday morning, about two and one-half miles above Livermore, near Jamestown. His body was recovered about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Captain Rowan was the owner of the gasoline towboat, Jolly Tom, and at the time of his death was engaged in taking a raft of logs down to the Smith Cooperage company at Livermore. The raft was ahead of the boat, which was going down the river. The tow drifted against the bank and struck some trees that hung out over the water and Captain Rowan stepped from the boat onto the raft for the purpose of pushing it out into the

river. He stepped between two logs in such a manner that he was unable to extricate his foot and the raft was carried down under the boat, with him on top of it, crushing and drowning him between the raft and the bottom of the boat.

An account of the accident was telephoned to Livermore and another boat was sent out at once. The little boat was pulled off the raft and the body of Captain Rowan was recovered and taken to his home in Owensboro.

For a number of years Captain Rowan had engaged in the towing business up and down Green river and was a very popular man. Several years ago he was landlord of the Commercial Hotel in Hartford and was well known here. He is survived by a wife and two children, Miss Annie Laura Rowan, sixteen years of age, and Tanner Rowan, twenty-one years of age; two sisters, Mrs. Maude Peay, of Little Rock, Ark., and Mrs. Julia Atherton, of Nuckols, and one brother, Mr. Louis Rowan, of Livermore, also survive him. He was a member of the Livermore camp of Modern Woodmen of America.