Beloved Iowa Physician Almost Drowns Crossing the Frozen “Miss”
“One of them was quite dead.” …Or so it was reported in the Iowa Gazette of December 6, 1845.
On December 2nd or 3rd, Dr. James Alexander Rousseau (1812–1882) of Washington County, Iowa Territory (formerly of Burlington) attempted to cross the frozen Mississippi River from Indiana to Iowa. His reason for being out in the frigid conditions are possibly related to a visit back home to family in Wayne County, Kentucky, but no clarity is provided in the news reports that followed this event.
Dr. Rousseau … Fell Through the Ice?
Apparently, Dr. Rousseau (the author’s 3d great-grandfather) was driving his buggy with a “span” of two horses across the immense river that officially divided the continental East from the West. When the precarious ice bridge cracked, both horses fell through and struggled to escape the deadly situation. Dr. Rousseau must have jumped from the buggy that was due to fall into the water next. If he went under, there would be no telling how far the mighty current would drag him under its heavy winter sheet.
“Both [horses] were recovered, but not until one of them was quite dead,” the Gazette reports. How Dr. Rousseau managed to pull two horses out of the hole without slipping in himself or cracking more of the ice shelf is a sheer wonder. One horse must have been panicked and the other… Well, to say they were difficult to rescue as dead weight is one thing. To rescue the horse as a wet dead weight is an entirely exhaustive feat.
The Gazette reporter admits, “Accidents of this kind not unfrequently happen,” and issues a warning for others to avoid attempting a similar shortcut.
That same year, however, a Mr. J. F. Sowell wrote home to his family about venturing out with a group of St. Louis tourists: “And we walked over on the ice to the Illinois shore. Don’t be alarmed, for the ice is 5 or 6 inches thick and they are constantly passing over with horses and loaded sleighs. Indeed[,] while we were on the ice, a man passed us with a sleigh load of coffee in sacks at a full gallop.”
No One Anticipated The Doctor’s Fate
Many Iowa families were crestfallen at the misleading news story. The “one of them was quite dead” phrase left readers believing that Dr. Rousseau had perished that winter.
Dr. Rousseau was an esteemed pioneer and beloved physician who lived in the state from 1843–1864. He was a recent graduate of a Medical School in Louisville, Kentucky, and a newlywed to Mrs. Sarah Jane Daglish (a talented Pianoforte Instructor from London). He moved his family from Kentucky to Iowa in about 1844 by ferrying up the Mississippi and “landing” in the Burlington Ferry Port in Des Moines County. After spending a short time in that city, he found work as a “country physician” in Washington, Iowa, where he would travel to and treat patients in their homes.
But No Such Drowning Took Place
Shortly after the December 6 article was printed, someone from the St. Louis Republican reached out to get all the juicy details, but knowing Iowans shut down the gossip. “We presume the Republican fell into the error in consequence of the ambiguity of an account… as rendered in the Gazette,” the Burlington Hawk-Eye claimed in their December 25 response.
“Accidents of This Kind Not Unfrequent”
I’m not sure many people actually learned their lesson from the close call or the warning issued by the Gazette.
Shown in the cover image painting is a depiction of an entire Mormon outfit who crossed the frozen river in February 1846 with their heavily laden wagons and carts risking death by drowning for several days. Yes, they allegedly took a huge amount of weight over in succession. (Mormon historians would eventually determine this entire story to be a myth.)
In 1855, St. Louis, Missouri officials begged citizens to stay off the “Ice Gorge” as it was nicknamed. The Missouri History Museum reports that “St. Louisans came out by the hundreds for ice parades, midriver bonfires, and carriage rides. They set up makeshift businesses .. including bowling alleys, skating rinks, pop-up saloons, and gambling houses.” The part that scares me (the author) the most about this scenario is that just up the way, “brewery workers chopped away large chunks of river ice to pack into their beer cellars.” Lordy!
Though warnings continued to be issued throughout history and some even included scientific reports of how the ice sheet could be as thick as 10 feet, or as thin as 3… folks continued to disregard the cautionary tales in favor of a one-of-a kind photo op, such as the woman seen below is attempting.
Later, photographs such as those below from 1936 would emerge where groups of people are out for a stroll or a bicycle ride over the frosted glass. There are even rumors (and let’s hope that’s all they are) that at one point, automobiles and even a train engine drove across the mighty waters.
“This sort of behavior was not encouraged,” writes Fred Lynch for the Southeast Missourian. In 2011, when his report was published, he included an example of how serious this matter of staying off the ice has been taken for many years. When four local school boys walked out onto the Mississippi River earlier in the week, authorities were notified! The journalist believes the boys did not realize the danger they put themselves in.
A January 31, 1936 article in the Southeast Missourian also reported on the river conditions being evaluated by U.S. Engineers. They concluded that “the stream’s swift and treacherous current keeps the thickness of the ice at a minimum and persons going on it are taking chances with their lives.”
As for how Dr. James Rousseau managed to get his horses up and out of the water, these Engineers believe that would have been next to impossible. “A person [or horse] breaking through would not have the ghost of a chance in saving himself, [the] engineers declared.”
Dr. Rousseau definitely beat the odds this time. And he would again when he crossed the Great Plains in 1864 and had to fight for his life during the Platte River Raids. Lost some horses in that, too. But that’s a different story.
About the Author
Janelle Molony, M.S.L. is an award-winning freelancer and nonfiction author from Phoenix, Arizona. She has a particular interest in women-centric stories and local history. Her writing has been featured in magazines and journals such as History Nebraska, The Michigan Historical Review, Minnesota Genealogist, Annals of Wyoming, Women’s History, and more.
Her latest book, Emigrant Tales of the Platte River Raids (M Press, 2023) just launched as the Number 1 Hot Release for Biographies of the American Civil War on Amazon. It features the Rousseau Family’s 1864 journey across the Great Plains and the life-or-death battle that awaited them mid-way.
See more from the author by following on Medium and on social media. More publications by Molony can be found on her official author webpage.
