Niagara Neanderthal 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
In July 11, 1920 Charles Stephens became the third man to attempt going over Niagara falls in a barrel, and the first to die. Stephens was a 58 year old barber who struggled to support his 11 children, and wife Annie. To supplement his income, Stephens tempted fate as a daredevil earning himself the reputation in Europe as the "Demon Barber from Bristol." Stephens performed high dives and parachute jumps.
The idea crossed his mind that maybe if he could successfully challenge Niagara Falls his fortunes might change, despite the fact that Annie Taylor, the first person to go over the falls in a barrel and live to tell about it, was living in desperate poverty.
Stephens, a stubborn man, refused to listen to the advise and warnings of previously successful Niagara stuntmen, and constructed himself a large heavy barrel. Fellow Englishman Bobby Leach, who himself successfully plunged over the cataract albeit not without serious injury, tried in vain to warn Stephens that he had misgivings about Stephens's barrel design. Leach gave up and asked William "Red" Hill, another reputed Niagara river man and daredevil, to try and talk sense to Stephens, but Hill was as unsuccessful as Leach had been.
Leach's and Hill's misgivings stemmed from what they feared to be serious flaws in Stephen's barrel concept.
First, the barrel was large, heavy and untried. Second, Stephens decided to strap his feet to the anvil, while strapping his arms to the barrel.
Early on the morning on July 11, 1920, Stephens set himself afloat in his vessel. After a 45 minute ride through the rapids above the falls Stephens' barrel went over the brink of the Canadian Horseshoe falls. When the barrel hit the water at the bottom of the falls the barrel's bottom couldn't withstand the force of the sudden shock, and gave way to the anvil which under its momentum ripped through the base of the barrel with most of Stephens still strapped to it.
The remainder of the barrel became caught behind the falls, and only after the iron rings gave way were the staves of the barrel recovered with one of Stephen's arms still strapped to the barrel's remains. Stephens arm, which was tattooed with the epitaph "Don't Forget Me Annie," was buried in Drummond Hill Cemetery, Niagara, Ontario.
Submitted on 07/30/2003
Submitted by:
Peter Jeuck
Reference:
Various Niagara Falls Historie
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