Collegiate Times

"We also got the Clemson class information and a photograph of the guy. We got his 1916 draft registration card. So we put all these pieces together and we concluded that the guy at the bottom of the lake is in fact Samuel Ira Felder, who was born in 1884 and died on July 21, 1921," Jim said.

Since Felder was not found for many years, his official date of death is listed as July 23, 1929 on many New York state documents. The Dalmas brothers suspect this is because of a state death statute, but have not confirmed that information.

One question that arose with the remains was why they stayed hidden for so long.

Jim Dalmas said he obviously did not know the answer, but he offered educated speculation.

"Have you ever seen a diving suit from 1921?" Jim Dalmas said. "They look like monster outfits. They could only stay down for 15 minutes at a time, and they had to have hoses that went down with them. It was quite cumbersome. Of course, they didn't have any lighting or any of the modern equipment. So those guys spent several days, I think five or six days, at the lake trying to find his body and never did."

 Jim Dalmas said the divers expected to recover the body at the time, but the plans hit an invisible snag. Dalmas attributed the problems to tendencies of Mountain Lake.

"That lake drains and fills back up periodically," Jim said. "Apparently trees and all kinds of things actually grow in the dried-out lakebed and then the water fills back up. So I guess he just got entangled with something that kept him from floating to the surface."

The remains were found in a part of the lake that is currently dry.

INEVITABLE CONFIRMATION

Assuming that his family would like to know of the finding, the Dalmas brothers and Giles County police have been searching for the family of Samuel Felder.

"We have put together a tree for Felder, but it's not done," Jim Dalmas said. "We're still trying to accumulate information. What we know so far is that he did have brothers and sisters. He did not have children, so there are no descendants of Samuel Felder to find."

That is not, however, the end of the search for the Dalmas brothers.

"We're still trying to track down two of his male siblings that may have had children. We know where they resided, when they died and so forth, but so far all the children we've found have been stepchildren," Jim Dalmas said.

Giles County police have not officially identified the body.

Continue Reading:  « Previous12