Dedication Page

Dedication Page

The Immigrant website is dedicated to our great-grandfather, Jack Lynch, an Irish immigrant killed on the job in a NYC sewer on August 26, 1908. See article from the NY Sun below...

The Sun, Thursday, August 27, 1908

Comrades Saw Him Drown
While They Tugged to Save Him From Sewer Flood

Workman's Foot Had Been Caught in Drain Pipe and Sudden Rush of
Water Covered Him While He Tried to Free Himself and Companions
Struggled with Him.

John Lynch, a workman in the Department of Sewers, was drowned in muddy water in a trunk sewer yesterday morning while trying to relieve a lot of flooded cellars in East Eighty-first street, and two of his fellow workmen who were standing by to assist him in case of the emergency were compelled to watch his death struggles as they tugged at his hands in a vain effort to rescue him.

Notice was sent to the Department of Sewers early in the morning that the sewers leading from cellars in the block in Eighty-first street between First avenue and Avenue A were blocked and that the contents of the cellars were floating around in about four feet of water.

A force of laborers went to the block and in the crew were Lynch, Edward May and John McCarthy. Lynch lived at 2162 Eighth avenue, May lives at 432 West Forty-second street and McCarthy at 1643 Lexington avenue.

Lynch and the other workmen opened the covering of the trunk sewer in Eighty-first street and found that in spite of the heavy rain that had fallen there was only a small stream of water trickling through the sewer. The cellar that was flooded most was at 485 East Eighty-first street, and Lynch got a long iron rod and commenced poking at the house drain leading into the trunk sewer from that building. May and McCarthy also climbed down the ladder leading to the bottom of the trunk sewer, realizing that if there was a sudden inrush of water Lynch would need assistance to get out.

Lynch was kneeling in the trunk sewer poking away at the obstruction in the lateral drain when May and McCarthy noticed a heavy volume of water coming through the trunk sewer behind Lynch's back.

"Get out, Jack! She's coming from the other way!" cried May, as he and McCarthy climbed up the ladder to keep out of the water. Lynch jumped to his feet to follow them, but he slipped, and as his feet slid across the slimy bottom of the sewer one of them became wedged in the lateral drain on the opposite side.

Although water was rapidly rising May and McCarthy climbed down as far as they could and Lynch held out his arms to them. They grabbed him and pulled away with all their might, but the more they tugged and the more Lynch twisted at his foot the tighter it was held.

When the water rose over Lynch's shoulders his mates became frantic in their endeavors to haul him to safety, although the water was then pouring through the sewer with such power that they were in constant danger of being swept off the ladder and into the sewer themselves.

Finally the water reached the level of Lynch's chin and as he raised his head toward May and McCarthy and opened his mouth in a final appeal for hislife the volume increased and completely covered him.

May and McCarthy realized then that they could do nothing, but they held on to Lynch's arms, and as his own struggles to free his foot stopped the force of the water from the lateral sewer in which his foot was entangled drove it out, and when May and McCarthy tugged again they lifted Lynch unconscious from the water.

An ambulance from the Presbyterian Hospital and a hook and ladder truck arrived just at that time, but when the firemen raised Lynch to the street and when he was examined by the surgeon he was dead. It was said at the Department of Sewers that Lynch's death was the most unusual in the history of the department.