These articles were published about the project in local newspapers.
The granite boulder weighed more than 11 tons. It was a job, hauling it by horse and wagon from the Malley farm in Aurelius to the spot on the south shore of Owasco Lake, in Auburn. It was worth the weight.
The big rock is still there today, almost 100 years later. It marks the approximate spot where Mary Adelaide McCarthy and her cousin, Edward “Ned” Burke drowned July 11, 1911 in a ferocious lake storm. It bears a plaque to them.
Nick LaDuca lives across Owasco Road from the boulder, that’s known as the Burke Memorial. Nick’s a Boy Scout, working to the Eagle rank, Scouting’s highest. He took on restoring the monument and the little plot around it as his Eagle service project.
Dr. Jeff LaDuca, Nick’s dad and a regional Scout supervisor, will emcee a rededication program at Burke Memorial at 4 p.m. July 10. Michael Quill, mayor of Auburn, and other public officials, will be there, along with members of the Auburn Knights of Columbus, an organization that directed the search for the victims in 1911 and gathered money for the memorial.
Nick, who’ll attend Christian Brothers Academy in the fall, drafted a history of the tragedy for the ceremony.
Auburn was in the midst of a heat wave 100 years ago when a young sailor (and an orphan) named Ned Burke and Adelaide McCarthy, two cousins, packed a lunch and went picnicking in what then was called Lakeside Park. The weather was clear when Ned and Adelaide set out on the lake in a rented canoe.
Adelaide was wearing a long dress and large hat, which was the custom of the time. She couldn’t swim, but Nick’s text says she felt comfortable accompanied by a sailor. Suddenly, around 4:30 in the afternoon, the skies darkened and a “huge storm broke out.” The canoe overturned.
We’re told four young men on shore saw the couple struggling, grabbed a small boat and went out on the lake after them. They included G. Earle Henry, a reporter who later wrote an account of the drownings for the Auburn Daily Advertiser.
The waves were very high.
The four found Adelaide in Ned’s arms. They tried throwing a line to them but failed.
A huge wave swept over them.
Ned was treading water. He called out to his would-be rescuers “Save the girl; don’t mind me.”
The girl slipped from Ned’s grasp and went under the waves. Ned dived for her. He never came back up.
The young men said they did their best, but the rescue turned futile. “I couldn’t have done more if it had been my own mother,” one of them said.
Ned was a Navy nurse. Adelaide was only 18, a recent graduate of Auburn High School. Her aunt was married to the mayor. The community was shocked.
Adelaide’s body was found the next day. Ned ‘s was found two days later, about 150 feet from where Adelaide’s was located. The bodies, in matching twin caskets of oak, were buried next to each other in the McCarthy family plot in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.
Auburn raised money and a committee supervised a memorial fund. The big stone was picked from among 14 candidates and moved to the site in the park. It was set in concrete and a bronze tablet was placed on the face. (An identical tablet is at the graves in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.) It carries the facts of the drowning and a poem, “A Stranger’s Tribute,” written by Dr. Frederick Sefton, an Auburn physician. The memorial was dedicated Sept. 8, 1912.
Nick LaDuca is a member of Troop 11, at the Alliance Church in Auburn. Laurel Auchampaugh, the Town of Owasco historian, said she admires “this young man for all of his research and the journey of discovery he and his dad found working together on this.”
Jeff LaDuca said Nick worked on the memorial about two months. With other Scouts, he turned over soil and added mulch to the site, edged it; scrapped, painted and repaired the fence around the lot and planted flowers.
He said Nick’s research into the history of the drownings sets the record straight about the tragedy, which often is distorted in the community. “Lots of people drive by the spot and they don’t know what it is,” he explained.
Jeff said he and his son tried to locate kin of the McCarthy family to invite them to the rededication program, so far unsuccessfully. “We’d certainly like to see someone from the family there,” he said.
The Post-Standard
Syracuse, NY
June 30, 2011
OWASCO - Owasco Lake was still Sunday afternoon, and bathers splashed in and out of the water under clear blue skies.
The same could not be said 100 years ago, when Navy nurse Ned Burke and his cousin, Adelaide McCarthy, found themselves out on the
lake during a sudden storm July 11, 1911.
Their canoe tipped amid high waves. McCarthy went under, and Burke dove after her.
"Save the girl, don't mind me," he shouted to friends.
Those were his last words.
Both bodies were found in the days that followed. Distraught friends and family members set up a memorial fund and, one year later, put a monument up at Emerson Park (then Lakeside Park), not far from the site of the accident.
Through the decades, memory of the tragedy faded and the monument, a granite boulder and bronze plaque, followed suit - until now.
Nick LaDuca, 14, is a Boy Scout with Auburn's Troop 11. He restored the monument as an Eagle Scout project and hosted a rededication ceremony Sunday afternoon. He lives near the monument and recalled walking by it with his father when he was younger.
"I can remember walking by the monument and my dad would read the bronze tablet," he said. "I didn't know what it was about, but it was a nice monument."
Thanks to LaDuca's efforts, it just got a lot nicer.
The fence is repaired and repainted and the boulder itself got a powerwash. Pink and red geraniums bloom in the fresh mulch.
"I've always felt badly that this monument seemed uncared for," he said. "It seemed like a great Eagle Scout project."
He finished the work with donations from local companies and help from his Boy Scout comrades. His efforts also extended into the library, where he researched the history of the event. That account ran in The Citizen July 3.
"It has been very interesting learning the history of where I live," he said.
That extended to placing himself in the young sailor's shoes.
"I guess I would have tried to save Adelaide, like (Burke) did," he said. "But it's a hard position to be in, to have to act fast."
At Sunday's ceremony, an array of local politicians, including Assemblyman Gary Finch, lined up to praise LaDuca and the Boy Scouts.
The Purple Lancers Honor Guard, the Auburn Knights of Columbus and local Korean War veterans were also in attendance.
Jeff LaDuca, Nick's father, is the Scouts' district committee chair. He emceed the event and helped throughout the project.
"Nick said his favorite part was learning about the history," Jeff LaDuca said. "My favorite part was spending time with my son."
The Citizen
Auburn, NY
July 11, 2011
