Fred Bester, 1895 Obituary

BESTER, WAHL

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 5/12/2007 at 12:24:30

I translated the following obituary from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published on Friday, 8 March 1895. Any information in brackets or notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

[Fred. Bester]

Tuesday morning a terrible accident occurred near the freight rail yard in which respected a citizen of Carroll met his death. Jos. Wahl was occupied in unloading a load of coal for Hoffmann’s Hotel, in which he was being assisted by Fred. Bester. They had just brought out a wagon of coal, and as they were returning, a freight train was standing on the south tracks waiting for the eastbound passenger train. A rather cold wind was blowing, and so Bester, who was no longer a young man, crossed over the south tracks right in front of the engine of the freight train in order to seek shelter from the wind. The old man was somewhat hard of hearing, and through the noise that is always present at a busy train yard, he failed to hear the passenger train which was thundering in from the east. By the time the deceased discovered the danger he was in, it was unfortunately too late. He was flung about 20 feet from the tracks by the frightful force with which he was hit by the cow-catcher. The engineer, who had just seen the unfortunate man commit the fateful error but had no time to reduce the speed of the train, jumped from the locomotive and rushed to the victim. It was said that he gave up his spirit as he was being lifted and brought to the rail yard. The deceased was a respected German-American and lived in the Third Ward. He leaves behind a married son who mourns the sudden death of his father. Regarding this accident, it cannot be said that the railroad officials are at fault. It was impossible for the engineer to stop the train, because from the time Bester came out from behind the locomotive to the time of the accident was hardly a few seconds.