☞ “No One Ought Ever Do That Again!”

☞ “No One Ought Ever Do That Again!”

☞Today in History -- On today’s date 121 years ago, Thursday, October 24, 1901, on her 63rd birthday, noted American adventuress Annie Edson Taylor (1838-1921), “The Queen of the Mist,” became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

☞Annie Edson was born on October 24, 1838 at Auburn, New York. Whilst studying to became a schoolteacher, she met & married David Taylor. The couple had one son who died in infancy, & Mr. Taylor died not long after -- leaving Annie a widow.

 Annie then worked at various jobs in different places -- eventually ending up in Bay City, Michigan where she hoped to become a dance instructor. Since there were no dance schools in Bay City at that time, she opened her own. In 1900, she moved to Sault Ste. Marie to teach music. From Sault Ste. Marie she traveled to San Antonio, Texas, & from there she & a friend went to México City to find work. Unsuccessful, she returned to Bay City. 

☞Desiring to secure her later years financially & to avoid ending up in the poor house, she decided to become the first person to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel using a custom-made barrel constructed of oak & iron & padded with a mattress.

 Several delays occurred in the launching of the barrel, particularly because no one wanted to be part of a potential suicide. Two days before her own attempt, she conducted a trial run -- placing her cat in the barrel & sending it over Horseshoe Falls. Seventeen minutes later, the kitty was found dazed & confused with a bleeding head, after which Taylor & her cat posed for a photograph.

☞On October 24, 1901, her 63rd birthday, the barrel was put over the side of a rowboat, & Taylor climbed in, along with her lucky heart-shaped pillow. After screwing down the lid, friends used a bicycle tire pump to compress the air in the barrel. The hole used for this was plugged with a cork, & Taylor was set adrift near the American shore, south of Goat Island.

☞The Niagara River current carried Taylor’s barrel over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, which has since been the site for all dare-devil stunts at Niagara Falls. Rescuers reached her barrel shortly after the plunge. 

Taylor was discovered to be alive & relatively uninjured -- except for a small gash on her head. The trip took less than twenty minutes, but it was some time before the barrel was actually opened. Upon emerging from her barrel, Annie declared: “No one ought ever do that again!”

☞Shortly after her trip over the waterfall, Annie Taylor told the reporters: “If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat... I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall.” 

☞Taylor briefly earned money speaking about her experience, but she was never able to build much wealth. Her manager, Frank M. Russell, ran away with her barrel, & most of her savings were used towards private detectives hired to find it.

 It was eventually located in Chicago, only to permanently disappear sometime later. She spent her final years posing for photographs with tourists at her souvenir stand, attempting to earn money from the New York Stock Exchange, briefly talking about taking a second plunge over the cataracts in 1906, attempting to write a novel, re-constructing her 1901 plunge on film (which was never seen), working as a clairvoyant, & providing magnetic therapy treatments to local residents.

☞Annie Taylor died from the effects of “morphea” (a disease of the skin) at the age of 82 on April 29, 1921, at the Niagara County Infirmary in Lockport, New York. She is interred in the so-called “Stunters Section” of historic Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York.

☞The photograph depicts Annie Taylor, “The Queen of the Mist,” with her barrel & her feline “test pilot.”