130 years ago, 98 perished in ship capsized on pleasure cruise filled with passengers from Minnesota and Wisconsin

by Joseph Back

There are two men named Martin O’Shaughnessy listed in the cemetery register at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Miesville, Wisconsin. The first was born on September 4, 1863, the second on August 31, 1895. The first died on July 13, 1890 on Lake Pepin to the southeast, the second on the day after Thanksgiving of 1960. The one was born two months and one day after the battle of Gettysburg that saved the Union cause and would extirpate slavery, the other lived to see John F. Kennedy elected to the Presidency, thereby establishing the oncedespised Irish within the mainstream of American society. But while each man buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery has their individual story and context, the first is the subject of our present sketch, for while in life he may have made the news, it is for the way that he and others died which is most remembered. The first Martin O’Shaughnessy, you see, perished in the Sea Wing disaster of July 13, 1890.

The story of the Sea Wing disaster begins with what was an otherwise happy event, a trip from Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin down the river to Lake City, Minnesota, whereat there was an encampment of the first regiment of the N.G.S.M., or Minnesota National Guard. After making stops at Trenton and then Red Wing along the way, the Sea Wing continued on its journey, with an attached barge named the Jim Grant, according to Mississipivalleytraveler. com. At present it was Sunday morning, and the skies were fair. Most of the dead would later be from the City of Red Wing.

Not aware of this however and presently continuing along its way 130 years ago, the Sea Wing and its passengers stopped off at Lake City, Minnesota, where the local residents were ready to receive them with pleasure. Joy and revelry pervaded the day’s goings on, as lemonade stands and ice cream sales for made a brisk business. Come evening, it was time to go back, with a storm approaching.

That should have been the first clue, but Captain David Wethern listened to passengers over his own better judgement and started out on the return journey instead of staying at Lake City for clearer skies. The Pierce County Herald of July 16, 1890 gives the rest of the story, summarized in headline and fleshed out with paragraphs. From the Herald: “Perilous Lake Pepin… “Lake Pepin, under a quiet sky is a peaceful and beautiful sheet of water.

It is about 30 miles in length and 3 miles in width and owing to the high bluffs on either side which seem to confine the force of certain windstorms it is often transformed into an Atlantic fury. Old rivermen understand this and often wait for storms to exhaust themselves before venturing into its waters.

It would have been well for Capt. Dave Wethern last Sunday night if he had obeyed the dictates of his own judgement and remained at Lake City instead of attempting to return with his 250 happy excursionists in the face of a storm which he saw approaching. But fate directed otherwise, the excursionists were anxious to get home, and nearly a 150 men, women, and children found watery graves…” A day later the River Falls Journal of River Falls, Wisconsin published its own report of the disaster, with additional details.

“…About 8:30 in the evening the party started to return. A shower was imminent but those in charge thought no serious danger threatened. The storm came on, and in about half an hour, and at a point about 2 miles above Lake City. After a fierce struggle with the winds the boat succumbed. Quite a number succeeded in climbing back upon the upturned bottom, and were rescued. A few swam ashore. A barge was in tow, and was cut loose and those on board of it, forty persons or so, were saved…” So recounted the River Falls Journal, the point in question being today known as the Hok-Si-La Park and Campground, if a toponymic road reference at the Park’s south end is to believed. Picking up yet another day later, the Pierce County Plaindealer of Prescott and the Hudson Star and Times from further up the St. Croix had their own input on the disaster. From the Star and Times: “The capsizing of the steamer Sea Wing on Lake Pepin, with its appalling loss of life, together with the frightful electric storms around lake Gervais mark one of the most frightening chapters, in the whole sad volume of fatalities for the northwest. Detailed accounts will be found on the inside pages.” Turning elsewhere in the same newspaper from that time period, the account continued.

“Nearing Central Point, about two miles above Lake City, the steamer was at the mercy of the waves, which were now washing over the boat and all was confusion. The boat momentarily ran onto a bar and the barge was cut loose, and the steamer again set adrift in the lake. A number of those on the barge jumped and swam ashore. As the barge also floated again into the deep water, those on the bard saw the steamer as it was carried helplessly out into the middle of the lake, and as they were being tossed about on the raging waters, they were horrified a moment later to observe the steamer capsize and its cargo of 150 people precipitated into the lake…” The same day near Saint Paul, a storm and tornado up by Saint Paul hit the Good cottage, where unable to escape to the storm cellar, “Misses Minnie and Carrie Miss, Mr. Bernard and Simon Good and wife and two children….almost miraculously escaped alive, but some of them were wounded, as described elsewhere. Among the dead from the cottage was a servant named Peter, whose body was found on the lakeshore. His surname was not known, the paper related. Meanwhile, the Pierce County Plaindealer related that farmers in the area had also sustained damage from the storm: “…Aside from this catastrophe (of the Sea Wing), the farmers of Pierce County were generally damaged by this tornado. Among them were John Giebler and Fred Endrof in this vicinity. Mr. Giebler’s mammoth barn was down falling the contents, among which were about forty tows of hay, down upon six head of fine horses, but the horses were rescued from the debris somewhat injured,” it reported, going on to say that, “There is hardly a wind mill standing in the whole county,” from a storm that by all accounts did not look dangerous or unusual to most observers at first. Ten days afterward, the Pierce County Herald of Ellsworth, Wisconsin had an update, reproduced below. From the Pierce County Herald of July 23, 1890: “THE LAKE PEPIN HORROR The appalling loss of life which attended the wrecking of the Sea Wing in Lake Pepin one week ago last Sunday places it among the great marine disasters which have with tolerable regularity occurred in the fresh water bodies of our continent and which will probably continue to happen so long as men tempt the winds and the waves. Some of these accidents are clearly beyond human control, but there are other as clearly within the pale of human wisdom and foresight which might have been prevented by proper judgement. Whether the disaster on Lake Pepin belongs to the latter or not is now being pretty generally discussed, and as the first shock of the tragedy is passing away and the actual facts have been nearly all sifted from the thousand wild rumors regarding the responsibility, we are better able to judge who, if anybody, is to blame…” The Herald goes on to state that sentiment toward Captain David Wethern was changing as he “was a great sufferer, his wife and little girl being among the victims,” but also that, “All must admit, however, that his starting out in the teeth of an oncoming storm on the treacherous waters of Lake Pepin with his frail bark loaded with helpless women and children, was an error of judgement,” and that of the 214 people on board the Sea Wing, “115 were saved and 99 were drowned,” closing with a list of names. And that, in short, brings us to the denouement of our journey into history, and to Barn Bluff, in Red Wing.

Barn Bluff, known as “Mount La Grange” by its French appellation, stands like a sentinel above Red Wing at the head of Lake Pepin, its tilted marine rock strata from the Paleozoic visible in clear relief along the roadside of Highway 61, being capped on top by glacial deposits of a more recent origin. Originally used for 40 years to mine lime, it was set aside as a public park for the citizens of Red Wing at the dawn of the 20th century, with trails to the top periodically changed to allow for long-term restoration and conservationist purposes. Climb the hill on foot (there are no car routes) and you’ll be rewarded with panoramic views of the area wherein most of the Sea Wing’s victim were then domiciled, and afterward buried. At the bluff’s east end, there is a sign, still relevant to the present though not to the Sea Wing itself. It reads as follows: “EAST SCENIC OVERLOOK Head of Lake Pepin During the steamboat era, a lookout was established here each spring in anticipation of the first steamer.”

Another sign below it below it admonishes viewers against rock throwing for the sake of “hikers below.” Though not springtime, looking out in the direction from which the Sea Wing would have returned—but didn’t— brings one’s gaze to an old Northern States Power plant—now called Xcel Energy, and further past it to Dead Slough Lake and the environs in and around Bay City, Wisconsin, as sediment from upstream curls and is sucked in through Catherine’s Cut to cloud the shallow waters of the soon to be renovated shoreline of the Gateway to Lake Pepin. Time moves forward as memory fades, but the story of the Sea Wing and its ill-fated passengers, will live on—as will the memory of Martin O’Shaughnessy, and that of his potential namesake. Proximity after all, can often indicate a connection.

The view from ground level of the disaster site on Lake Pepin, near present day Hok-Si-La Park and Campground north of Lake City, Minnesota. Photo by Joseph Back.

The gravestone of Martin O’Shaughnessy at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Miesville. Mr. O’Shaughnessy was among the victims of the Sea Wing Disaster, and the nearby church still offers services in Latin, the language he would have heard Mass in.Staff photo.