I took this printout and the death certificate copy to the local funeral home. She checked their records and said they didn’t have anything for his name nor time frame. She said if a “body” wasn’t found they wouldn’t have had the record, the coroner would issue a death certificate and that was the only record.
Fast forward 3 years to January 2019, I once again logged in to a newspaper repository, to which I have a membership. I searched generically for Robert Edwards 1917-1918 and hit pay dirt. I found the local newspapers from Plumas County, for the towns of Plumas & Quincy. This county is adjacent to Butte County. I found the same newspaper account of the “missing” boys and then found “the rest of the story.”
***UPDATE 2021 I found a few more search engines for the old newspapers, which led me to more articles, all stating the same facts***
1917-09-27 Feather River Bulletin Quincy Plumas CA & 1917-09-26 ALSO San Francisco Examiner transcribed herein:
Abandon Hope of Finding Two Men
Western Pacific Officials Believe John J. Casey and Robert Edwards Were Drowned in North Fork
San Francisco, September 26 – All efforts on the part of Western Pacific officials to find some trace of John J. Casey, private secretary of C.M. Levey, and Robert Edwards, clerk of the passenger department, who have been missing since last week ago last Sunday, proved fruitless. Both youths are believed to have lost their lives in the Feather River near Belden, while fishing.
Casey who was about twenty years of age, lived with his mother and brother at 1424 Sanchez Street. Edwards, who was about 18, was a son of Mr. and Mrs. H.T. Edwards and lived at 3766 Twenty-Second Street.
Casey was on his vacation and Edwards, and expert fisherman, went to Rock Creek to be over Sunday to join him in a fishing trip along the river.
After leaving the station the boys went to the river and took a boat, intending to scull across the stream.
The single ore (sic) was found broken about 200 yards below where they were supposed to have been lost. The boat was found later, three miles down the river, closely wedge among the rocks out from shore.
At the direction of President Levey and of Bodie K. Smith of the Passenger department, section men employed by the company have made a thorough search of both banks of the river as far as the intake of the Great Western Power Company, fifteen miles downstream. Not the slightest trace of either boy could be discovered, nor could the straw hat which Casey wore when last seen be located. Several pools were dynamited to no purpose.
The woods in the vicinity have ben (sic) thoroughly searched, with equally fruitless results. President Levey said last night that the company proposed to continue the search.
Casey’s relatives last night denied a report from Los Angeles friends that the missing boy had been seen in San Francisco at the Ferry building last Monday. President Levey added his belief that Casey had no reason to absent himself. While not saying directly, it is apparent the boys will next be heard from when the river gives up the bodies.
So these two boys had been seen taking the boat from the local resort where they’d been staying and their employers sent out the search parties. The family story said “drowned while fishing” … so did the newspapers. Wow, I was just so blown away by the information and detail, putting the story together, it all fits.
I looked a bit more and then found the rest of the story, as the late newspaper man, Paul Harvey used to say…
The Oroville Daily Register: Saturday May 11th 1918 Evidence of Drowning Found
The first conclusive evidence that two employees of the Western Pacific of San Francisco lost their lives by drowning in the Feather River near Cresta has been obtained. The men disappeared last summer, but in spite of the fact the river was searched and nothing was found of their bodies, nor of the boat in which they started across the river. Word was brought to Oroville yesterday that a human foot encased in a canvas shoe, and a portion of a green painted boat had been found by an Indian boy. The foot and a piece of board were found about five miles downstream from the place where the two men were last seen.
FATE OF ROBT. EDWARDS IS AT LAST VERIFIED
1918-05-16 Feather River Bulletin Quincy Plumas CA
Mysterious Disappearance of Robert Edwards and John Casey is Accounted for After Seven Months.
Western Pacific section men last Sunday found near Cresta, in the waters of the North Fork of Feather River, the right leg of a man, and on the bank nearby was the backbone of a human being, possibly belonging to the same. Investigation proves conclusively that this was the remains of Robert Edwards, who disappeared with a companion, John J. Casey the 16th of last September, while out fishing near Belden, in a boat.
The last seen of the two men was when they took a boat intending to scull across the stream. The single oar they were using was found after their disappearance about 200 yards below where they were have supposed to have been lost. The splintered boat was found later, three miles down the river, closely wedged among the rocks out from shore.
At the direction of President Levey, President of the Western Pacific and Bodie K. Smith of the passenger department, section men employed by the company made a thorough search of the river as far as the intake of the Great Western Power Company, fifteen miles down the stream; not the slightest trace of either boy could be discovered. Several pools were dynamited to no purpose. A report was current sometime after the catastrophe that Casey had been seen in San Francisco wearing a soldier’s uniform, but this was denied, and President Levey said Casey (who was his private secretary) had no reason to absent himself, and that the boys would next be heard from when the river would give up the bodies.
So far no trace of Casey has been discovered. The identification of the dismembered leg was accomplished noting the shoe was like that worn by Edwards, a canvas one with red rubber heel. Robert Edwards was the son of Mrs. H.T. Edwards of San Francisco, and was a clerk of the passenger department of Western Pacific. He was about 18 years of age.
There we have it, the story was correct. As a historian I love the details, the search and the treasures I find…as a mother it’s agonizing to think of losing your son, not knowing for sure for 7 months, and then they found “him,” or rather pieces of him. I called back the woman at the mortuary, she remembered I’d been there a few years earlier, told her what I’d read and she said the coroner’s office would’ve most likely disposed of the remains, once they’d identified the victim.
I've included some images of the brothers and sisters of Robert Edwards, I haven't located any images of him though we may find one with another family member...he was a teenager when he died, his brothers did have a camera, some of the snapshots shown here are from one of their albums. New tools for genealogical & historical research come online every year. I'd decided to try and locate the truth of this story in 2016, new documents are online in 2019 and now I've updated this story again in 2021. The family lost their son and brother, but he was not forgotten....