TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - Eighty-nine years to the day that game warden William Nattkemper’s body was recovered in the Wabash River, his final resting place received a proper marker recently.
Nattkemper’s family joined Indiana conservation officers and local police for a memorial dedication ceremony at Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute. His grave was believed to have been unmarked until the Department of Natural Resources intervened.
“A great deal of information surrounding my great uncle has been relegated to obscurity or was lost with the passage of time, until your division has reignited an interest in his life and the service he rendered,” said Don Nattkemper, a Terre Haute attorney, during remarks at the ceremony.
William Nattkemper and fellow game warden, William Peare, drowned on April 27, 1926, when rough waves capsized their boat. Three other wardens with them survived. The officers were destroying illegal fishing nets and turned to investigate gunshots on the west side of the river.
Decades later, JoAnn and Spencer Moore were researching the state’s six conservation officers who have died in the line of duty.
JoAnn Moore is a sergeant for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and her husband is retired from the force. Their son, David - also an IMPD officer - was shot and killed investigating a traffic stop in 2011.
The Moores went to Highland to find Nattkemper’s burial spot. Map in hand, they walked up and down the rows of gravestones coming up empty.
“And we both looked at each other and went, ’It’s unmarked,’” JoAnn Moore told the Tribune-Star in an interview at the cemetery.
The couple handed over the research to DNR director Danny East. The law enforcement division started a GoFundMe account to raise funds for a marker, collecting $2,125.
“Terre Haute just really rallied,” JoAnn Moore said. “The community is just amazing.”
Terre Haute Monument crafted the marker, which officers unveiled during the ceremony. The front reads: “We will always remember, always honor and always serve in your memory.” The back says, “On April 27, 1926, Officer William J. Nattkemper and Officer William J. Peare became the first Indiana conservation officers to lose their lives while in service to the citizens of the state of Indiana.”
The ceremony was a sort of family reunion for several of William Nattkemper’s relatives, who came from across the country.
Great niece Linda York, a St. Louis resident, said she didn’t know about Nattkemper’s sacrifice until she found it online one day.
“It wasn’t something that our father talked about while we were growing up,” York’s sister, Mary Ann Burns of Virginia, added.
William Nattkemper didn’t have any children, and all but one of his siblings had died by time York and Burns came along.
Burns daughter, Katy, who lives in North Carolina, also attended the ceremony.
“I’m just so grateful to be here,” she said. “I don’t see this side of the family much, so (it’s) a great opportunity.”
During the ceremony, Don Nattkemper shared the story of his great uncle’s life and death.
William Nattkemper grew up near present-day Riley and worked in a tannery, mastering the art of making horse saddles and harnesses.
After automobiles rendered that craft obsolete, one of Nattkemper’s brothers told him about an opportunity to be a game warden. Nattkemper started his duty in 1920 or 1921.
About five years later when the department received a report of illegal fishing nets near Tecumseh, Nattkemper and Peare - of Rockville - set out in a boat to confirm it.
They later met with three other wardens - L.B. Watson, Greencastle, and John Pyle and A.R. Hill, Indianapolis. The men gathered at the Plaza Hotel on North Ninth Street in Terre Haute to devise a plan to remove the nets and handle any interference.
Game wardens were well aware of fishermen’s opposition to the enforcement of netting laws, Nattkemper said. It’s possible fishermen may have fired the shots.
“All had their service revolvers with them and, I guess, prepared for about anything, except what actually happened,” he said.
Strong winds were creating white caps on the river as the game wardens set out. Soon, the white caps turned into waves 2 to 3 feet high.
One wave washed over the boat, a second plunged it underwater.
“William Nattkemper and game warden Peare swam valiantly,” Nattkemper said, his voice trembling with emotion, “and they made it about 10 feet to the bank and they both went under, and they were never seen alive again.”
Watson managed to reach dry ground, while Pyle and Hill clung to the sinking boat and were rescued farther downstream.
A four-day recovery effort followed, with search crews setting up camp on the river bank.
“And a particular note, game wardens Pyle, Watson and Hill - who didn’t drown - said, ’We will never leave until these bodies are recovered. We will not leave their side,’” Don Nattkemper said.
“And they didn’t,” he continued. It was days until the bodies were found. So the commitment of these three surviving game wardens to their fallen comrades to me speaks volumes about the inseparable bonds of brotherhood that existed 89 years ago and also is a hallmark of this organization today.”
Don Nattkemper’s father turned 21 the day after the boat capsized. His birthday plans were canceled, so he went to help the search. Two men even rowed a barn door along searching for the men.
Vigo County sheriff’s deputies even used dynamite to try to raise the game warden’s bodies.
William Nattkemper’s body was recovered April 30, 1926, two miles downstream from Fort Harrison Road. Two teenagers using a pole made from material donated by a Rockville lumber yard found the game warden’s body in a bow of trees.
East, who also spoke at the ceremony, said Don Nattkemper’s stories had filled many blanks in his descendant’s story. He said the gathering was meant to celebrate William Nattkemper’s service and the Moores’ efforts to give him proper recognition.
Peare’s great niece, Donna Barcus of Terre Haute, also attended Thursday’s ceremony. Peare is buried in Rockville, and Barcus said she wasn’t sure whether the gravestone mentions his sacrifice.
She said all Hoosiers should know about the DNR’s duties and responsibilities.
“We need to be reminded occasionally, I think, of the importance of this group,” she said.
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Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, https://bit.ly/1DQdOP5
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Information from: Tribune-Star, https://www.tribstar.com
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