Obituary--Clifton Barton

Another person who died way too young.  Modern medicine probably would not have helped him.  (We still don't have a cure for carelessness!)  Anyway.....
From the 2 August 1917 Fremont TimesIndicator:

LEARNING TO SWIM YOUNG MAN DROWNS
Clifton Barton victim of Accident at Fremont Lake Last Thursday Afternoon
While  trying to learn to swim, Clifton Barton, age 17 years and nine montys, was drowned in Fremont lake late last Thursday afternoon.
The young man was desirous of learning to swim and was assured by friends that they would teach him.  Impatient to wait, however, he got into a row boat, rowed to a depth of eight or nine feet and plunged into the water, drowning almost immediately.
The body was recovered by Cornelius Gerber and Markle Stanger and Drs. C. B. Long and C. A. Mateer were called.  Although methods of resuscitation were immediately applied, they proved of no avail.
The strange action of Barton in plunging into deep water when unable to swim can only be accounted for upon the supposition that he had been told that this was the best method of learning how to swim. 
Barton had been making his home with his grandparents in Big Prairie township, but recently had been employed in the canning factory here.
His mother, Mrs Nellie Barton, his sisters, Lois and Nellie, and brothers Willis and Harry, came from Battle Creek Friday to take charge of the body which was taken to Big Prairie Saturday for burial.  The funeral services were held in the union church of Big Prairie, conducted by Rev. Daniel Truman, of Newaygo.

Ok, so may he didn't die of carelessness, it may have been gullibility, or just because he was a teenage boy. Sad, but so avoidable.  They never realize until its too late that perhaps they are not as invincible as they think. 
I know, I've raised a couple of my own.
And marvel that they've survived their teen years.