Four Killed In Auto Collision Near Kimballton (1935)

JOHNSON, SUMNER, PETERSEN, CHRISTENSEN, PETERSON, GWINNER, WEDDUM, MATHIESEN, BAIN

Posted By: Ken Akers (email)
Date: 5/7/2012 at 21:07:43

Audubon County Journal (IA)
Thursday, Feb. 7, 1935, page 1

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Four Killed In
Auto Collision
Near Kimballton

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Elk Horn Trucker And
Three Basketball Players
Killed In Wreck

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The deaths of three young Elk
Horn high school basketball play-
iners and an Elk Horn truck line
operator in a headon auto-truck
crash south of Kimballton Friday
evening, were accidental according
to an investigation made by Hans
J. Johnson, Audubon county coro-
ner, Saturday.

The accident occurred in a dense
fog while the players were en-
route to Irwin for a game. The
dead are:

Ethan Johnson, 17, forward on
the team.

Ray Sumner, 17, forward.

Jethrow Petersen, 15, substi-
tute guard.

Bert Christensen, 37, trucker,
who died in Atlantic hospital af-
ter accident.

Two other youths were injured,
Melvin Peterson, 17, son of Jac-
ob Peterson of Council Bluffs,
who was taken to an Atlantic
hospital for treatment and Paul
Gwinner, 18, who had been living
at the Elk Horn Orphans home,
suffered an injured ankle.

Christensen was driving the
players to the game at Irwin
when his auto collided with a
truck, owned by Christensen, driv-
en by Folmer Weddum of Elk
Horn. Weddum and his compan-
ion, Milo Mathiesen of Elk Horn,
escaped injuries.

Apparently the drivers did not
see each other until too late to
stop. The accident occurred on
a level stretch of road.

The rest of the team and Coach
C. A. Bain were enroute to Irwin
in another car following Chris-
tensen, but they did not see the
crash.

Spectators had assembled early
in the gymnasium at Irwin for the
contest which was to be a double-
header with the first and second
teams of each school playing.

Coach Bain has announced that
the Elk Horn team will play no
more games this year.

Johnson's father is a merchant
at Elk Horn. The father of Jeth-
row Petersen is agent for the
Atlantic Northern railroad. The
Sumner boy is survived by his
mother who is in a hospital in
California.

http://iowagravestones.org/gs_view.php?id=132933 - Ethan W. Johnson
http://iowagravestones.org/gs_view.php?id=127705 - Jethro Petersen
http://iowagravestones.org/gs_view.php?id=108155 - Bert S. Christensen
http://iowagravestones.org/gs_view.php?id=108157 - Bert S. Christensen
http://iowagravestones.org/gs_view.php?id=108194 - Folmer Weddum