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It was a warm day
in Fairport on July 5, 1915. 17-year-old Irving Waterstraw decided
to go for a refreshing swim in the Erie Canal. He carefully placed
his clothing on the south side of the
canal bank near the Cobb Preserving Company* on Turk Hill Road and dove into
the canal clad in his swim trunks. Irving didn’t surface until the
next day, when undertaker Henry R. Relyea
pulled his body from the canal.
Newspaper reports differ on Irving’s tragedy. The Fairport
Herald newspaper reported on July 7 that two
men saw Irving dive into the canal. When he didn’t come up for air, they spread
the alarm. Just a day later, another Fairport newspaper, The Monroe County Mail,
told a different story. It
noted that the accident was discovered by Tony Pace, who was walking from Wayneport
to Fairport. Tony noticed the clothing near the canal and went looking for the
owner. When it
became evident that the owner was nowhere to be found, Mr. Pace hurried to the
Village of Fairport and alerted undertaker Henry Relyea, who quickly arrived
on the scene.
Regardless of the details, 17-year-old Irving Waterstraw had drowned in the canal.
It wasn’t the first tragedy for the Waterstraw family. Both his parents had died
10 years earlier, leaving
Irving and his brothers, Everett and Harvey, in the care of their grandmother,
Mrs. Sophia Brown. Irving
shares a monument with
his mother at Pittsford Cemetery. It reads, “Mother, Frances Briggs Waterstraw,
1875-1904.
Irving Howard, Her Son, 1898-1915”.
*The Cobb Preserving Company was located in the complex at 1000 Turk Hill Road
that now houses Amazing Grains Bread Co., among many other businesses.
Photo of Cobb's Company is courtesy of the Perinton Historical Society.
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