DEATH OF RALPH HACKING

THE VERNAL EXPRESS, August 11, 1907. "Ralph Hacking is dead. He was drowned in an unnamed pond last Sunday afternoon about 5:00 o'clock. A pall of gloom hovers over the community. In a fierce battle between life and death, life gave up the ghost and death stalked away, conqueror in search of other victims.

"Of all the struggles for life that have been recorded, the struggle made by young Hacking was one of the most heroic. With both arms paralyzed from cramp, and with only his lower limbs free, he rose to the surface of the water eight times before going down for the last time. Even when he know further effort was almost useless ho crawled on the bottom for at least thirty foot before he gave up. A peculiar feature of the death was the fact that there was not a pint of water in the body and the theory has been advanced that the young man closed his mouth to keep the water out and that he strangled to death. Another peculiar feature is that each time he came to the surface he made a lunge towards shallow water. His arms were cramped and he could only use his legs.

"The funeral services were held Tuesday 2:00 p.m. at the Maeser Ward Church, Bishop S. B. Colton presiding. Nelson Merkley, R. S. Collett, and Don B. Colton were the speakers. The services were most impressive. Each speaker eulogized the dead and commented on his high character and exemplary life. A touching scene of the services was the singing of the beautiful hymn, ‘I Need Thee Every Hour'. Only a few weeks ago in the same church during a similar service, Ralph Hacking's beautiful tenor voice led a quartette which rendered that same hymn.

"Deceased was not only an upright and honorable man, but he was a talented man. He was a musician of rare ability and was the leader of the choir in the Maeser Ward, and leader of Uintah Stake Tabernacle Choir. He was educated in the B. Y. University." After the funeral services and Ralph's body, was laid to rest in the Maeser Cemetery Mabel Gerber Hacking moved home with her parents, where about one and one-half weeks later her baby girl was born, August 29. She named her Ralphena in memory of her father.

Hacking Newsletter, Mabel G. Hacking, John Sampson Hacking 2 Bulletin, 1956

Children: Marie Hacking, Reed James Hacking and Ralphena Hacking