John Robert, the Only Son of Mr. and Mrs. George Cope, Murray Street, goes through...cold waters... The Funeral Which was...Sunday to Queen's Lawn Cemetery...
One of the saddest drowning accidents in years, in this district, occurred at the harbor on Thursday morning last and the victim of the cold clammy waters of old Lake Ontario was bright-eyed, smiling John Robert Cope, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Cope, Murray Street, Grimsby.
The little lad, with his companion, Reggie Daleish [sic], had taken their skates and gone down the creek to the harbor for a skate.
After skating around for some time, Johnny skated a little farther down the channel, until he was directly behind the fish house of Frank Hand.
Reggie was some distance behind Johnny and he heard the ice ahead of him crack and he stopped. Johnny also stopped and turned to skate back up the channel, but the ice gave way beneath him and he was precipitated into the ice cold water.
Reggie, who was about 20 to 25 feet away, was unable to go to his assistance for fear of going in himself and the poor little lad was so frightened that he could not speak or call for help.
Johnny came up to the surface and crawled out on the ice and it gave away beneath his weight the second time and he sank again and once more rose to the surface, but the shock from the cold water had sapped his strength and he sank for the third and last time, to rise no more.
When Reggie saw that his companion had gone down for the third time, he immediately started to skate up the creek for help, and met Harold Gowland at the Victoria Bridge and although exhausted from fright and hurrying, he managed to tell Harold that Johnny had drowned.
When Gowland, who drives a delivery rig for Zavitz, heard the news, he whipped his horse and drove to the lake as hard as the horse would go.
He left the horse at the ... house and ran down the beach. The Hand boys were in the Frank fishing shanty fixing fish nets and they saw him coming and went out and asked him where he was going and he told them that Johnny Cope had drowned.
Jas. and Jos. Hand immediately got out pike poles and a flat... boat and started to break the ice to the centre of the channel... [no further text available]
