William Lavery (1886-1920)

Biography

William T. Lavery was born on March 29, 1886, in Scotland. After Lavery immigrated to the United States in 1892, he married Lorena Hendricks and worked as a miner for the Western Mining Company. In May 1919, the Bureau of Fisheries (Bureau) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, one of the predecessor agencies of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, appointed Lavery as an apprentice fish-culturist at Leadville National Fish Hatchery in Colorado. In this role, he served as one of the Bureau members in charge of the station established to collect the eggs of rainbow and black-spotted trout.  

Cause of Death

On May 23, 1920, Lavery and Arthur Dean, another Bureau employee, drowned in Antero Reservoir in Park County, Colorado. On the day of the incident, Lavery and Dean left the Bureau’s camp to obtain supplies from the superintendent of the reservoir. After reaching the dam and obtaining supplies, Lavery and Dean began their return trip to their camp at 5:30 p.m. When the superintendent of the reservoir visited the camp with mail on May 27, he found the two men missing and instituted a search. Bureau members found the men’s boat approximately 200 yards from the shore stuck in the mud at the bottom of the reservoir. They found Lavery’s body fastened to the boat’s painter, which is a rope attached to the front of the boat for tying up and towing. The following morning, they recovered Dean’s body via grappling.

Sources: 

“William T Lavery.” Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/135174164/william-t-lavery. 

Bureau of Fisheries. “Changes in Personnel Appointments.” Fisheries Service Bulletin, no. 48, May 1919. 

Bureau of Fisheries. “Drowning of Fish-Culturists in Colorado.” Fisheries Service Bulletin, no. 61, June 1920. 

“Burial Register, 1914-1931.” Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs Sacramental Records, 1800-1967. 

“City Directory.” Leadville, Colorado, 1911. 

Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. “Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920 Population.” National Archives, 1920. 

“History of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, www.fws.gov/history-of-fws.  

Selective Service System. “William Lavery.” World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, National Archives.