Granddaughter Debra Elston Hurd and her daughter, Sara Neufeld, recently affixed a Carnegie Hero grave marker on her grandfather’s headstone in Riverside Cemetery in Newton, Illinois.
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“I was finally able to locate his grave and get it mounted this April,” Hurd said in an email to the Commission. “Getting this done has been a goal of mine for a long time. It means a lot to me and his other descendants. I wanted to make sure that his heroism is always remembered.”
E. Hale Elston died attempting to save Eugene C. Burk from drowning in Mason, Illinois, on Aug. 28, 1924. While wading in Little Wabash River, Eugene, 15, was carried by the current into a pool, 12 feet deep, at which point he sank. Elston, 27, teacher, followed by another man, both of whom were on the bank and were clothed, swam 45 feet to the point where Eugene had disappeared. Elston dived for Eugene, and Eugene came to the surface with one arm around Elston’s neck. Eugene got on Elston’s back, and Elston did not reappear. Eugene remained at the surface a moment and then sank. Both drowned. The other man got into distress and also drowned.
Hurd said Elston’s sons were still young at the time of their father’s death, her dad being only 3. With the Medal, Elston’s wife, Mabel, received $80, and then starting in 1926, an additional $80 a month (nearly $1,500 in today’s dollars) until she remarried four years later.
“The stipend that my grandmother received basically kept them from starving during the ‘20s and the Great Depression,” Hurd wrote.
Neufeld said the grave marker is especially important to her because it “keeps the legacy of his heroism alive.”
“He showed amazing bravery on behalf of others when he placed their lives above his own. He left a legacy of love and sacrifice that we are inspired by,” she said.
Hurd said she hopes the grave marker will “shine a light” on her grandfather’s heroism.
— Jewels Phraner, Director of Outreach and Communications