LEMEUL LEET 1829 - 1906

LEET, GREEN, JACKSON

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 8/25/2003 at 19:41:05

Postville, Iowa newspaper May 4, 1906, Vol. XXXIV

LEMUEL LEET

Lemuel Leet Killed by the Cars

At McMaster Crossing. -- His Horse Also is Killed.

Lemuel Leet left his home near Cherry Valley on Monday morning last with a one horse top buggy bound for Postville to market sixty-one dozen eggs and do some trading for the family, with doubtless the thought farthest from his mind that he should not reach his destination alive, but such was the divine decree. He came down the straight stretch of the road from the Darius Orr place, which commands a full view of the Milwaukee railway for several miles east and beyond the station to the west, and approached the McMaster grade crossing a half-mile east of town just as the 10:20 west bound Milwaukee passenger came up the straight stretch leading to town under a full head of steam. The alert eye of Engineer Rush Eddy saw the rig approaching and whistled out a shrill shriek of warning. The horse stopped and the ponderous locomotive came thundering on, and when within a short distance of the crossing, and too late to stop, Mr. Eddy saw the man urging his horse on to the crossing. An instant later the death-dealing crash came and all was over and within less than its length the train came to a full stop. The horse had got about two-thirds of the way over the crossing when the engine caught it a little in front of the left hip and hurled it full fifty feet on the south side of the track where it dropped dead. The buggy was hurled to pieces against the fence on the north side and on the same side about 12 or 15 feet west of the cattle guard, close to the ties, lay the lifeless body of Lemuel Leet, his skull crushed on the left side, the neck broken, the left arm and left leg also broken. The train crew placed the body in the baggage car and carried it to the station where whence it was taken to the undertaking rooms of J. M. Harris, who notified the family by phone of the sad affair and prepared the body for burial.

From the best evidence obtainable it is evident Mr. Leet was either in a deep study over something at the time of the accident, or else failed to hear the danger signals of the train, some claiming he was quite deaf, but of this we do not personally know.

Lemeul Leet was born at Clermont, New Hampshire, Sept. 4, 1829, and died at Postville, Iowa, as above stated on Monday, April 30, 1906, aged 76 years, 7 months and 26 days. When 14 years of age he moved to Warren Co., New York, where he was united in marriage to Mary Green, June 11, 1851. In Sept. 1865 they came to Hardin, Iowa, and in March 1868 moved on to farm in Post township, where he resided until his death. Three children were born to them, the eldest dying in infancy. His aged companion, with one son, George B. Leet, and one daughter, Mrs. Janet Jackson, with five grandchildren survive him.

Mr. Leet was respected for his industry, temperance and economy. For a number of years past the infirmities of age had been growing upon him, and his body was seldom free from the twinge of pain, yet with his indomitable will he kept up and about. Suddenly and without suffering came to him the summons, and a kind husband and father, good citizen and friend is no more. Peace to his ashes.

The funeral was held from Bethel U. B. church Wednesday forenoon, Rev. R. M. Montgomery officiating. Interment in Minert cemetery.