Grabbing for His Hat While Working on Yadkin Bridge, E.D. Wages Loses Balance, Falls and Drowns, June 2, 1923

Construction Employe Drowns in Yadkin River. . . Falls from Scaffold Where Bridge Is Build when Hat Blows From His Heada

Spencer, June 1—Grabbing his hat blown form his head, E.D. Wages, 35 years old, a carpenter employed on construction of the state highway bridge across Yadkin river at Spencer, lost his foothold and fell from a platform into the river and was drowned at noon today. He swam some 200 yards down stream, and half a hundred fellow workers watched his efforts to reach the bank. He was a good swimmer and thought to be reaching safety when he suddenly sank, apparently seized with cramp in 20 foot water. The river is slightly swollen and his body was soon swept out of sight.

Work on the big bridge was suspended this afternoon and large cr4owds joined in dredging the river in an effort to recover the body, still in the stream. Mr. Wages, a native of Augusta, Ga., had been employed by the Hardaway company, contractors on the bridge, for several years, and was highly regarded. The platform from which he fell was only a few feet above water and surrounded a copper dam in the middle of the river.

He is survived by a wife and one child, now at the scene of the accident.

From the Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, June 2, 1923