Ferry at Retreat State Hospital in Newport Township crosses the Susquehanna River for the last time. Picture published Wilkes-Barre Record Aug. 22, 1951.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
A new cable and steel ferry boat was put into service at Retreat State Hospital in November 1926. Picture published Wilkes-Barre Record Nov. 22, 1926.
A swollen Susquehanna River overtook an overloaded ferryboat transporting three automobiles and 16 people from Retreat State Hospital on Oct. 6, 1926.
Annie Gruzinskas, 35, who lived with her husband, Andrew, at 120 Regal St., Korn Krest, Hanover Township, drowned while 15 people survived.
“One woman is missing and probably drowned and 15 other persons narrowly escaped drowning yesterday afternoon about 3:30 o’clock when the ferry boat used to convey passengers across the Susquehanna River at Central Poor District’s Farm and mental hospital at Retreat capsized,” reported the Wilkes-Barre Record on Oct. 7, 1926.
Robert Carter, an engineer installing a new boiler at the hospital, witnessed the deadly mishap.
Carter is quoted in the Record story.
“I was standing along the shore and I noticed that the ferry seemed to be having difficulty. I heard shouts and screams and noticed that the front of the ferry boat was shipping water and as I looked, it dipped below the surface,” Carter is quoted.
A guide cable the ferry boat used to cross the river snapped resulting in the boat tipping before capsizing.
Ferryboat Captain Charles Abel, who was employed at the Central Poor District’s Farm, was credited with saving the lives of 15 people who were tossed into the river.
Recognizing the trouble and sensing the stress on the cable, Abel managed to unlock a rowboat fastened to the ferry and got four women into the rowboat before the ferry boat began to tip.
With the assistance of Theodore Evans, who climbed into the rowboat from the river, Abel was able to remove two women and a man from the river as they were being swept away. Others in the river hung onto the side of the rowboat as Abel made it to shore, saving 15 of the 16 ferryboat passengers.
Search efforts immediately got underway but were hampered by the swift river current.
“High water in the Susquehanna River balked efforts of large groups of employees of Central Poor District at Retreat yesterday to recover the body of Mrs. Andrew Gruzinskas, of Korn Krest, who was missing after the ferry boat conveying 16 persons and three automobiles upset at 3:30 o’clock on Thursday afternoon, reported the Record on Oct. 8, 1926.
Hooks were dragged along the river to search for one of the three automobiles Annie Gruzinskas was believed to be seated inside.
A team of six horses all attached to a cable righted the overturned ferry boat and towed it to shore.
“Fast moving water made the job hazardous,” the Record reported.
When the automobiles were found and recovered by the team of horses, the body of Annie Gruzinskas was not in any of the machines.
As the river receded, her body was found on a sand bar in Mifflin, three miles below Berwick, on Oct. 16, 1926.
A new cable and a steel ferry boat resumed ferry service at Retreat and the farm in November 1926.
The ferry was used to transport hospital workers, visitors and farm laborers until a bridge was constructed and opened for automobile traffic on Aug. 21, 1951.
