Louis Bechtold Death In Boating Accident

In the middle of December 1895 Louis was out fishing with several co-workers from the hat company where they worked. Apparently, this was a custom he had been practicing ever since moving to Yonkers. After working Monday through Saturday, he and his friends would rent rowboats each Sunday at the public dock near the end of Main Street and row across the Hudson River to the New Jersey side and fish near The Palisades. Sometimes, they would rent a room at the Hoffman Hotel on Main Street.

One Sunday, December 15, 1895, around 6 PM, they returned from a day's fishing, five men in two boats. The weather had turned quite rough and one of the boats containing two of the men turned in at the Ludlow Street dock, while Louis and two of his friends continued on in the other boat towards the public dock. Later that night or early next morning, it became apparent that the three men never returned to the hotel or their homes. Several workers from the Waring Hat Company, where Louis and the others worked, joined the police in searching for the men. Nonetheless, their bodies were not recovered until Tuesday, December 17. It was presumed their boat capsized in the stormy waters and they drowned.

Louis' wife Lena was now left a young widow with three small children to raise (William, the oldest, was only five years old). To make this story even more tragic, Lena was six months pregnant with their last child, Florence, who was born in March of 1896.

Louis was buried in Lena's family plot at Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers.