Mrs Bushey Saves the Day

As a little girl, Mary Jane would ride logs - bound for a nearby logging mill on the river. When she was a bit older, she actually became a logger, in a job always done by men, except there was not enough men to be had, so she was recruited. A hard worker, and a fine swimmer, she was.

Now it’s August, 1929. Mary Jane is at her home on South Water St, in the bustling town of Ogdensburg, a town in northern New York on the mighty St. Lawerence. Mary Jane’s home is on the Oswegatchie, a fairly rapid moving tributary, some 300 feet wide. She is in her bedroom on the second floor; when she looks out and sees a man bending over at the river’s edge to wash his hands behind her house. We later find out this man is 64 year old Louis Segal of Rochester.

Louis loses his balance on the steep and slippery shore, and falls in - but headfirst. Mary Jane sees he is not coming up! In fact his feet are flailing in the water - his head is apparently stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river!

Mary Jane hurries down the stairs and out the back door, quickly to the river’s edge, but she too slips on the grass, and rolls down to the river’s edge. The man is still stuck, legs still flailing wildly, trying to extricate himself from this deadly situation. Mary Jane wades into the cold water; the current pulls her out about 15 feet from shore, but she manages to free the panicked man. They are now heading down stream, where in just a few hundred yards a power dam is with a 15 foot drop into rather rocky waters. She is able to collar the man and swim towards shore, against the current, and grabs the root of a tree. Together they scramble out of the cool water, both exhausted, helped by a now-gathered crowd. No 911 to call in those days. This is not the first time Mary Jane has had to fish people out of the Oswegatchie; no, just 4 years earlier a couple of young boys also tumbled in.

But this day, Louis Segal would live to see another day, and likely wash is hands heretofore in a sink.  Mary Jane, on the other hand, is so exhausted by the heroic effort, is in bed for two days afterwards.

A fine story, if we left it at that; but what follows makes this an Amazing Story.

At the time of the rescue, Mary Jane was a mother of 14 - yes, 14 children. Such a large brood was surprisingly, not that unusual at that time; but she also had grandchildren, great grandchildren, even great-great grandchildren - 131 one of them at the time of her death! She was born when Thomas Jefferson was still alive.  For you see, it was no young lady that saved Louis Segal that warm August day in 1929; no, it was a woman of 98 years old! Mary Jane Bushey lived for another busy 6 years, finally concluding life at 104.

Now THAT’s an amazing story.