Fuel Coming Down-Four Men Hurt 1881

YOUNG, MITCHELL, DIETZ, CRASPER, HUNT, SMITH, MCCORMICK

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 4/17/2017 at 21:35:52

The Clinton Age, Clinton, Iowa, February 11, 1881

Fuel Coming Down

Last Saturday, while a large number of wagons were being loaded at W. J. Young’s big pile of railwood, the pile suddenly gave way and buried beneath it four men who were at work loading their wagons. The names of the injured party are: William Mitchell, of Whiteside County, slightly cut and bruised; Fred Dietz, of Garden Plain, badly wounded on the head and arm; Edward Crasper, of this township, most seriously injured of all, his nose was broken, his head was cut in several places, and is believed to have suffered serious internal injuries; John M. Hunt, of Whiteside County, was slightly bruised. The sufferers were put on a sled and taken to Drs. Smith and McCormick, where they were given surgical attendance. They were sent to their several home in the afternoon, and their teams were looked after by their friends. The falling avalanche of wood frightened several teams, and the one belonging to Mr. Crasper came tearing up Second Street, scattering the wagon piecemeal along the route. The Frightened horses were stopped at Fifth Avenue.

The parties who took loads from these huge mountains of mill wood should exercise extreme care in pulling it out, for not infrequently one stick removed will cause the slide of hundreds of cords of the slabs, and there is great danger to life and limb at every one of these slides. If the parties would take the wood as it comes, and nothing in the centre for wood which may possibly be a little drier, there would be no danger. Let the wood haulers profit by the narrow escape of those four unfortunates last Saturday.