AKERS, Melvin - 1941

AKERS

Posted By: Colette Miles (email)
Date: 10/12/2014 at 12:20:37

MELVIN AKERS KILLED IN FARM ACCIDENT
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ROPE USED IN OPERATION OF TRACTOR CAUSES DEATH OF SPRING TOWNSHIP MAN
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Melvin Akers, 23 years old. Spring township farmer, was found dead in a field on his farm three miles, northeast of Larabee late Wednesday afternoon.

No Inquest Held.
Dr. J. E. Bunker, Cherokee County Coroner said the
young farmer had been killed in a tractor-combine acddent.
He said no inquest would beheld.
Akers apparently died early forenoon -- about 9 a. m. but his body was not discovered until around
4 p. m., when Mrs. Akers alarmed at his protracted abbsence, asked a neighbor to look for him. Mrs. Rance Lee, who has been caring for, Mrs. Akers, went to the home of Mrs.
Alfred Christensen and together they went to the field and found the body. Mrs. Akers who became the mother of a son less than a week ago, had returned from Sioux Valley hospital in Cherokee Tuesday night.
Mrs: Akers said her husband had told her when he left in the morning that he might be late for dinner. She became alarmed, .however,
when he did not show up late in the afternoon.
Officers who investigated said that Akers was combining grain and had made four or five rounds
in the field where he was working before the fatal accident occurred.
He was driving a tractor hitched to the combine and was controling the tractor by means of ropes while he rode on the combine.
The officers said, that investigation indicated that the hitch on the tractor broke loose, sending the machine, on ahead, and that a rope
around Akers' neck, and under one arm, which he used to work the tractor clutch, jerked him from his seat into the combine levers. Death was
believed to have been instant. The man's injuries were not immediately known.
The accident occurred about a mile away from the home and across the Little Sioux river. Akers
was alone in the field.
Boothby Funeral home of Cherokee brought the body here. Funeral services probably, will be held
Sunday.
Akers had operated the farm since last March when he returned from California where he had spent several years working in an airplane factory near Los Angeles. The farm had been turned over to him by his father, Webster Akers, prominent county
farmer.
Akers is survived by his widow and son, his father, one sister, Margaret, who lives in California, and two brothers, Glenn and George.
Glenn operates a farm just north of the place where the accident occured.
Mr. and Mrs. Akers were married about two, years ago. His uncle, George Akers, operates a produce
station here.
Young Akers was born and reared in Cherokee county. He lived in Spring township most of his life.
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