HARTMAN

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 06:17:04 :

Marin Journal
Thursday, November 24, 1921
Page 1

Two Lives Claimed By Ocean Waves

Swept from a rock jutting out into the Big Lagoon Sunday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hartman, a young couple, were whirled out from shore by a swift tide rip and drowned before the eyes of their companion, William Boekel, who was able to win his way to shore.

The young couple had come over from their home on Castro street, San Francisco to spend the day fishing and picnicking. According to Boekel the three of them were standing on the rock when the waves began to wash up and break about their feet. He had just spoken to Hartman and his wife about the danger of remaining, when a great comber washed them off. Boekel struggled back and gained the shore. Three hundred yards out he saw the man and woman battling with the waves. They sank before his eyes.

Boekel made his way to Muir Woods Inn and telephoned to the officers at Mill Valley, they in turn communicating with Captain Robert Johnson of the U. S. Coast Guard at Point Bonita. Johnson and his men at Big Lagoon saw Boekel standing on the shore. Shouting over the waves he told them of the tragedy. The search for the bodies proved futile.

Both Hartman and Boekel were employed by the M. & M. Plating works at 717 Market street. Harman was 27 years old and his wife 24. They had been married about 2 years and had been in the habit of spending their weekends fishing on the coast in the vicinity of where they met death.

Coroner J. Ray Keaton was notified of the tragedy, but as the bodies were not recovered he did not go to the scene of the accident.

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Marin Journal
Thursday, December 15, 1921
Page 1

Sea Gives Up Body Of Young Fisherman

The body of Fred Hartmann who, with his wife, was drowned Sunday, November 20, was found in the water at Big Lagoon Monday by Joe Eugenio, a rancher living nearby.

The body of the young wife, swept off the rocks while she was fishing with Hartmann, has not been recovered. The couple, aged 27 and 24 years, respectively, had been in the habit of spending weekends in Marin county. William Boekel, a fellow workman of Hartmann’s in San Francisco, was a companion of the couple at the time, and although swept from the rock, managed to save himself. The remains were brought in Monday afternoon by Deputy Coroner William Sorensen, and positively identified the next day by Boekel. An inquest will be held later by Coroner J. Ray Keaton. The body was found within 100 yards of the rock from which the man and his wife were swept.