Nahant, Massachusetts – August 30, 1901

     At about 8:30 p.m. on the evening of August 30, 1901, 24-year-old aeronaut Robert E. Jewett was scheduled to make a balloon ascension and parachute drop on the grounds of the Relay House in Nahant, where he had been performing for the previous several days.   Jewett would rise with the balloon sitting on a trapeze bar suspended underneath.  Part of the act would include pyrotechnics which he would light during his descent.  

     However, as the balloon was taking off it struck the roof of the Lilly Cottage which was on a hill behind the Relay House, and Jewett was thrown from his perch and landed on some rocks below.  He was taken unconscious to the Lynn Hospital where doctors said he would likely die.  

     Source:

     The Evening Call, (Woonsocket, R. I.), August 31, 1901