Brown Transportation Scrapbook http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~springport/pictures75/brownweb/ AND ! Frontenac Remembered Monday, August 20, 2007 By Debra J. Groom *Staff writer * Exactly 100 years ago, the Union Springs area still was reeling from the largest boating disaster to hit Cayuga Lake. The Frontenac, a side-wheeled steamboat, burned and sank July 27, 1907, about two miles south of Union Springs. Seven women and a 4-year-old boy died. "The boat went up like powder," Capt. Melvin Brown said later. About 50 to 60 passengers had boarded the boat that day near Ithaca, heading to various locales along the lakeshore. The story of the famed steamboat will be told at the Frontenac Historical Society and Museum's annual dinner Aug. 29. Former county historian Thomas Eldred will tell the Frontenac's story and those of other boats that cruised Cayuga Lake at the turn of the last century. The event is open to the public. Reservations are due Wednesday. The Frontenac and other steamers owned by the Brown Transportation Co. made a good business of shuttling people and freight up and down Cayuga Lake. Some people would take the boats out simply for an enjoyable cruise. Others would board to get to another location. "They used the boats for freight and passengers," Eldred said. "They would leave Ithaca and stop at (the village of) Cayuga, which was a great transfer point. Then they would pick up freight (of the boats) at Cayuga and move it on the railroad all over the country. Cayuga was quite the transportation center at that time." The day of the disaster was much like any other day along the lake. On a bright summer Saturday, people were camping along the shore. Some were swimming. The strong breezes created some high waves. News stories from the time said the winds weren't enough to keep the boats off the water, but it did result in the Frontenac not making its scheduled stop in Aurora while cruising up the east shore of the lake. This dismayed some who were planning to attend a baseball game in Union Springs later in the day, Eldred said. The team from Aurora and some spectators from that village were planning to take the boat to Union Springs for the game. The Frontenac left Sheldrake, near Ithaca, at about 9 a.m. Eldred said it was about 30 minutes behind schedule when it neared Aurora, which would put it at that village at about 12:15 p.m. A news report states "one of the young boys discovered smoke coming from the flooring under the upper deck. The captain and engineer attempted to put out the fire, but it was too hot." "The sparks from the wood burning steam engine had got into the coils of rope on the deck," Eldred said. Capt. Brown, who was from Syracuse according to a report in The Syracuse Herald from July 25, 1907, "ordered the ship full ahead to ground it." "I told the pilot to beach her and the engineer sent her ahead under all steam," Brown told The Syracuse Herald. Passengers were ordered to jump in the water. Some women, reports say, were afraid to jump so people pushed them into the water. "They knew if they jumped in, their dresses would carry them under," Eldred said, noting the women's fashions of the day included long, bulky dresses with layers of heavy material that would soak up water and become weighted. "The ones that died were pulled in that way," he said. Along the shore were some Boy Scouts on a camping trip. They rushed in to help, as did James Ferris, who was sitting on the porch of his camp when he saw the boat ablaze, and an Ithaca camper named James Murphy. Murphy was quoted in The Syracuse Herald as saying he was upset that the male passengers did nothing to help save the women. "One man offered $500 to anyone who would save his wife and at the same time went on to shore without making any effort to save her himself," Murphy said in the newspaper. Eight people died, including one, Lyda Bennett, who had just finished attending the summer art school at Glenwood. Another of the dead was Marietta Sullivan, of Syracuse, whose body floated a distance from the Frontenac and became entangled in the three-bladed wheel of another boat, disfiguring her face. The Syracuse Herald reported she was identified by her fiance, who saw the ring he had given her still on her left hand. Today, people who snorkel or scuba dive on the lake often find pieces of the boat resting off shore about a couple miles south of Union Springs. Within a year of the disaster, the Brown Transportation Co. closed, Eldred said. Soon, the railroad ran down the sides of the lake so these boats no longer were needed. "It was the end of the steamboat era on the lake," Eldred said. © 2007 The Post-Standard. Used with permission. Copyright 2007 syracuse.com. All Rights Reserved.