Drowned at a Ford
Ex-county Commissioner Parratt, Wife, and Children Perish Near Portsmouth

Article taken from The Freeborn County Standard, Albert Lea, Minn, September 5, 1894

Portsmouth, Ohio - Aug. 28.---- Word has reached here of the drowning of four persons 12 miles north of this village. Adam A. Paratt, ex-county commissioner, and his wife and three children riding in a spring wagon, attempted to ford the Scioto river, it being very low, but the team struck a sinkhole and all the occupants of the wagon were drowned except a 12-year-old boy, who managed to get to shore.