In 1907, Kenosha, a 20-month-old boy went missing from his home. A neighborhood search ensued and soon afterwards his little body was found drowned in a discarded cistern under the back porch.
A Little Tragedy
A little tragedy was enacted out on the west side of the city Friday when Carl Hansen, the little son of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Hansen, who reside at 670 Jenne Street, was drowned in a discarded cistern under the rear porch of the Hansen home.
The finding of the little body just after 5 o’clock Friday evening brought to an end a search which had been carried on for more than eight hours. The remains were turned over to the coroner and this morning a jury called to investigate the death of the child returned a verdict of accidental death.
The accident is one of the saddest reported in Kenosha in many a month. The little Hansen child was the pride of the neighborhood and adored by its parents. He was just twenty months old and for the past three months he had been toddling about the house.
Mrs. Hansen had been washing in the rear of the house and the little boy had followed her out on the lawn and had toddled about after her. The back portion of the house stood over an old cistern but the foundation had been so built as to hide the old tank from view.
At one end of the house there was a little door leading under the house and since the little boy had been walking he had always sought to get through this door to explore, the strange country under the door step.
His mother placed a tub filled with clothes under the house just before 8 o’clock in the morning and a half hour later the little fellow found the chance to realize his dearest wish. He had been told that there was a “great black hole” beyond the doorway and this had only increased his childish curiosity to get under the house.
While the mother was in the house he slipped through the narrow little door and it is supposed that a minute later he plunged into the waters of the cistern.
A little later the mother started a search for him, and finding no trace of him about the yard, she called up the police office and notified the officers that the little boy was missing and they took up the search.
The father returned from work at noon and joined with the mother and the officers in the search and by 3 o’clock in the afternoon nearly every one in the neighborhood were searching for the child. None of them thought of the great black hole under the back of the house, but just after 5 o’clock John Zewen noticed that the door leading under the house was opened, and crawling in, he noticed the golden hair of the little boy floating on the top of the dirty waters of the cistern.
The remains were gently removed from the cistern and carried to the house, and when the mother discovered the fate of the child she refused to be comforted.
Source: The Telegraph-courier (Kenosha, Wis.), August 29, 1907.
