The Daily Morning Astorian of Monday, Aug. 4, 1890, mentions a Sunday evening balloon ascension, “witnessed by (hundreds of) saints and sinners,” gathered at the courthouse square.

The balloon inflated in only 14 minutes. The aeronaut, 28-year-old Arthur Cosgrove, rose quickly, but was forced to escape and descend in his parachute, as the gusting wind alarmingly tipped the balloon.

On the following Sunday, he had even worse luck. It was only his third ascension, in Portland. He went up “quite high,” but when he cut himself loose, the parachute was blown about and descended slowly. He had not fastened his wrist straps, and at 150 feet, he let go and “shot to the ground.” He left behind a wife, Bertha Ansola, also a balloonist, and two children.

His FindAGrave page newspaper clipping insists his death was a suicide, he was drunk at the time, and that he had refused to fasten his wrist straps to the parachute before lifting off. He had been despondent, and had threatened he would follow Professor Phinneas H. “Finn” Redmond, who had died in a balloon accident. He also believed Redmond had been having an affair with his wife. 

“‘I have known you all for a long time,’ Cosgrove told his friends on the ground before ascending. ‘You have all been good friends to me, but I will never see you alive again,'” the newspaper said. “He then kissed his little boy, and bade all a last farewell.”