Leo Hamilton

Leo Hamilton, 50, merchant, helped to save George Kneece, 35, laborer, from drowning, Chappells, South Carolina, March 16, 1912. Kneece and three other men attempted to cross the floodwaters of the Saluda River, and their boat was upset. Kneece grabbed a limb of a tree and clung to it in the main current of the stream. A man who rescued two of Kneece’s companions said it would be impossible to reach Kneece. Hamilton and a companion set out in a flat-bottomed boat, which leaked, and Hamilton, using a paddle, got the boat to a tree above Kneece, close to the edge of the swift current. His companion undressed there, and the water was bailed from the boat. Hamilton then paddled vigorously against the current and drifted to a position beside Kneece. He and his companion held the boat by grasping branches and vines, and Kneece grasped the gunwale and rolled over the side. The bow dipped, and considerable water was shipped, but the bottom of the boat struck a limb and was prevented from sinking farther. Hamilton paddled strenuously and reached quiet water and then the bank at a point 500 feet downstream from where he had gotten Kneece.