Beech Tree News Network

The Green River seems to be calling Jonathan Deweese’s name. A local fisherman was rescued from a potentially deadly situation on Tuesday morning near the boat ramp at Woodbury.

Workers from the Butler County Road Crew were working on the site of the new upriver boat ramp at Leonard Oak. Workers saw a boat drifting down Green River which appeared to be abandoned. After a closer look the crew realized that there was a fisherman in the water behind the boat clinging to the outboard motor.

The crew yelled out to the man and asked if the fisherman was in trouble. The man indicated that he was in need of assistance.

County Road Supervisor Jonathan Deweese jumped in the river on the Leonard Oak side and began swimming to the man's aid. When Deweese arrived at the boat he was unable to get the unidentified man back into the boat, so Deweese towed the boat and the man to the bank on the Leonard Oak side of the river.

When they arrived at Leonard Oak the man was so exhausted that he had to be helped onto the bank. The fisherman, who never gave his identity, said he launched his boat at the Woodbury boat ramp, and that the vessel got away from him and drifted away. He attempted to swim to the boat to catch it, but was unable to get into the boat. He became fatigued and held onto the outboard motor.

Donnie Lee, one of the County workers on the scene, summed up Deweese's rescue, "He saved that man's life. He's a hero."

 Earlier this year, Butler County Road Supervisor Jonathan Deweese, mechanic James Childress, and Josh Renfrow were in the process of taking the tug to the ferry to be reconnected to the barge when the propeller shaft seized up causing the engine on the tug to quit running. Because the system is direct drive, the men in the tug were unable to restart the engine.

The tug began to drift back down the river on the Ohio County side of the channel. The men onboard tried to restart the engine with no success. As the tug drew closer to the dam the men made the decision to abandon ship and make the risky swim to the bank instead of going over the dam onboard the tug.

The three men were able to make the swim to shore. The tug went over the dam on the Ohio County side of the river, but didn't capsize, and came to rest in a debris field just below the dam.