“Child, 3, Lost 67 Hours, Found Alive and Recovers” from the June 7, 1929 Door County Advocate
Edith Dorschel Survives Ordeal
Edith Dorschel, three-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dorschel of Green Bay, who was lost near Arcadia Memorial day and was found by a searching party after being missing without food or water for 67 hours, is shown above with her nurse, Miss Agnes Kerscher, recuperating at the Leasum hospital. She was able to be taken home Wednesday. The picture below shows the searching party which found Edith. From left to right they are Mike Seakey, Chet Walker, Jesse Sekey, and Allan Johnson.
Child, 3, Lost 67 Hours, Found Alive and Recovers
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Successful Searchers Refuse Reward of $1,000
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Lost for 67 hours in the woods near Arcadia resort, little Edith Dorschel, 3-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dorschel of Green Bay, was found Sunday morning in a serious condition after searching parties had worked night and day without result.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dorschel and four children and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hoslett and son Glenn, all of Green Bay, motored to Idlewild Memorial day and were holding a picnic at the Arcadia resort. Dinner had been eaten and the children were playing about when suddenly little Edith was missed. Several other cars were in the vicinity and their occupants assisted in making a search, but the child could not be found. A general alarm was sounded. Sturgeon Bay firemen joined the searching party and others went to give assistance that night. In addition, the coast guards dragged the water in a large area around the resort.
Friday morning 150 boy scouts from Green Bay motored here to comb the woods, and nearly 300 in all searched frantically before night without result. Saturday, several theories were advanced as cause for the little girl's [dis]appearance other than being lost, but still the parents clung to the hope that their child was alive in the woods. Saturday night officer Frank Parkman organized about 300 local men to make a final search of the woods, and by 7:30 Sunday morning the volunteers, dressed in old clothes and ready to turn over every brush pile and juniper bush, began to gather at the city hall, the meeting place.
In the meantime, a small party of four, consisting of Mike Sekey, his son Jesse, Chet Walker and Allan Johnson, went to Arcadia to get a start on the others. At first they covered the area west of the Bergsland farm about three-fourths of a mile this side of Arcadia and then went into the woods to the east of the road. In less than 25 minutes, Chet Walker sighted the child sitting on the ground faintly crying, 400 feet from the highway and one mile from the resort. Others of the party were called immediately, and Allan Johnson, who had gone down the road to park the Sturgeon Bay utility truck in which they made the trip, was hailed and went back after the truck to take the child to her parents at the cottage.
Dr. F. C. Huff and a trained, nurse rushed to the scene and took charge of the case, later moving the little girl to a hospital here for treatment. Her temperature was below normal, her throat was raw from exposure and crying, and her face and arms were covered with mosquito bites. Her first words at the cottage were, “I want a drink.”
Asked how long she had been gone, little Edith replied, “A million minutes.” She denied having seen any men during her absence, substantiating the fact that none of the searching parties had covered the area in which she had remained and also setting aside any kidnapping theory. All the child had seen were “bunnies, squirrels, birds and flowers”, she said.
At the hospital, Edith recovered rapidly, her temperature going up to 104 but returned to normal by Monday. Tuesday she sat up and played with her toys and Wednesday afternoon she was well enough to be taken to her home at Green Bay.
Mr. and Mrs. Dorschel were profuse in their thanks to the hundreds local and outside people who aided them in hunting for their daughter. In spite of the fact that a reward of $1,000 had been offered by the parents for the return of the child, the party of successful searchers refused any remuneration. Mr. Sekey, who had organized the little party Saturday night, told the family that if they were each given a picture of the little girl as a remembrance they would be satisfied.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles about children
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