"Monday afternoon J. M. Benjamin received a telegram from Geneva announcing the coming ashore at that point of the scow Pearl of Fairport, with two frozen bodies on board.

The vessel was owned by Captain E. A. Dayton of this place. The PEARL left Port Huron the 18th with 30,000 feet of lumber.

The following day she was observed passing down the river, since which time nothing was heard or seen of her until she came ashore at daylight at the point above named. She beached about 50 to 70 feet from shore, when it was discovered that at least 2 persons were on board.

No boat being at hand, recourse was had to the swimming out of a horse, when it was acertained that the occupants were dead.

A boat was afterward obtained, and the bodies which proved to be those of a son of the captain [E.A. Dayton], aged 12, and James Graham, aged 19, son of Captain George V. Graham, residing on the Headlands, were brought to shore.

Young Dayton was found lashed to the windlass, with all his clothes washed away except on those parts of the body where the rope bound them to him.

In one of the pockets, which was held by a rope, were some papers belonging to his father, and a wallet containing a few dollars belonging to the young Graham, which, it is supposed, were placed in his keeping when made fast to the windlass.

His body was completely encased in solid ice.

Young Graham was found sitting upright on the deck with his feet in the hold, both hands firmly grasping the edge of the deck on either side of him. He had on two suits of clothes, an oilcloth coat, a cap and mittens. He was also encased in ice.

Nothing is yet known of the fate of Captain Dayton, but the supposition is that he was washed overboard with the lumber on the deck, all of which had disappeared.

It is thought that the PEARL lost her spars in the gale of the 23rd and from that time till she came ashore, was drifting about, waterlogged, the sport of the wind and waves."

-Painesville Telegraph. November 1874