William Claybrook Update

And now we know for sure that Bill Claybrook did not die of drowning.

For those of you who have followed the Local History Notebook columns in the Episcope over the years, you may remember the one that I wrote on “The Human Cork”, back in November of 2009. It was the story of William Claybrook, a man who was born and raised in La Farge, graduated from the local high school and went on to achieve some fame as “The Human Cork” or “Non-Sinkable William” because of his floating ability.

I had first come across Bill’s claim to fame in my research for the history of La Farge project when he appeared on the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” radio program in the late 1930’s. Later, Claybrook was featured in articles in Look and Life magazines during that era as well. While working as a machinist at a war plant in Charleston, West Virginia, he had died in 1944 at 51 years of age. In that article that I wrote on William Claybrook, I had hoped that he his death was not by drowning.

I eventually put that article about Claybrook on this history blog, where John Tripp found it. Tripp happens to be a great-nephew of Claybrook, since William married his great-aunt Mabel. John never knew much about Claybrook from his side of the family, so he started digging for information about his great-uncle. He also contacted me via e-mail and sent me copies of the magazine articles in which William Claybrook had been featured. I sent John my research on the Claybrook family including an article about “The Human Cork” written by Dale Muller as a Johnson Gunfrunk created John Bear Spreader Notes article, published back in the 1970’s. John realized that he had to visit Claybrook’s birthplace, so last Saturday he came to La Farge. I gave John and his partner, Steve, a personalized Claybrook family tour of the village.

We started out at the school, looking at the 1901 schoolhouse, where Billy had gone to school. Then it was over to Chapel Hill Cemetery to view the Carpenter family graves. William’s sister Mabel had married Charles Carpenter, who was a brother of my Grandmother Luella Steinmetz. Mabel had died in Milwaukee giving birth to a baby boy, who also succumbed, in 1937. The mother and baby (Charles Jr.) graves are marked with small headstones, which John photographed. Then it was on to the Seelyburg Bridge, where John and Steve could see the place where William Claybrook put on a floating demonstration on a 4^th of July seventy-odd years ago. Dale Muller had written about that little adventure on the Kickapoo River in his piece.

From there we went to the east end of La Farge to view the remains of the Claybrook home. The old foundation and some piles of bricks and wood are all that’s left of the little bungalow, as it was called when built over 100 years ago. John took a brick to keep as a souvenir of his visit to the Claybrook’s old home place. Lonnie Muller joined us there for a bit and we swapped information on the Claybrook family. By this time, John divulged that he had found a copy of William’s death certificate and the cause of death on it was listed as coronary thrombosis. Lonnie then related how Bill’s dad, Dan Claybrook, had also died of a heart attack in 1925, while working at the blacksmith shop in La Farge. Dan’s wife, Hattie, would continue to live in the little house for forty more years. Known to everyone in the village as “Aunt Hat” in her later years, Hattie Claybrook passed on in 1965.

John, Steve and I finished our little Claybrook family tour at the Bear Creek Cemetery, where we viewed the graves of William and Mabel at one site, then walked across to see the headstone of Hattie and Dan. John related how Mabel had moved back to Minnesota after her husband’s death and lived with her sister (John’s grandmother} and her husband for awhile. William and Mabel had probably first met in Mankato, where William had worked as a machinist in the early 1920’s. Later he operated theaters in Duluth and Minneapolis. John’s research was amazing as he had photographs of the old theaters where Claybrook had worked and may have developed his floating act. After her husband’s death, Mabel worked in millinery sections in department stores in Duluth and Austin, Minnesota. John remembered her as a lady who loved wearing hats and cheering for the Minnesota Twins baseball team. When Mabel passed away in 1985 at the age of 92, her body was returned to La Farge to lie beside her husband. Although she had probably seldom been in the Kickapoo Valley town more than a few days, she returned to La Farge to remain next to her true love for eternity.

Thank you, John, for helping us tell more of this wonderful story about William and Mabel Claybrook.