BICKNELL, Carl W.

BICKNELL, LOVETT

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 3/11/2015 at 00:20:49

Obituary ~ Carl W. Bicknell
February 21, 1897 ~ January 13, 1917

Leon Reporter
Leon, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, January 18, 1917

Carl Bicknell Killed
in Auto Accident at Alliance, Neb.

_______________

Mrs. Jacob Bicknell of Pleasanton, received a message that her grandson, Carl Bicknell, the twenty year old son of Jake Bicknell, formerly of Pleasanton, was killed in an auto accident on Sunday, and she left on the afternoon train for Alliance to attend the funeral which was held yesterday. No particulars of the accident have been received.

The unfortunate young man mentioned above is a nephew of Mrs. I. M. Lovett of this place.

* * * *

Leon Reporter
Leon, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, January 25, 1917, Page 12

Particulars of Death of Carl Bicknell
_______________

The following particulars in regard to the death of Carl Bicknell, formerly of Pleasanton, mention of whose death was made in The Reporter last week, are taken from the Alliance, Neb., Herald, of January 18. The deceased was a nephew of Orel Estes of Leon, and was born at Pleasanton, where he resided until a few years ago when he moved to Alliance with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jake Bicknell:

Funeral services of Carl Bicknell, who died at 9 o'clock Sunday morning following injury in an automobile accident which happened about 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon, were held at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bicknell, 518 Toluca, yesterday afternoon, January 17, at 2 o'clock. Rev. William Carson Shaw of St. Matthew's Episcopal church preached the funeral sermon. The number who came to attend the funeral services of their friend and to extend their heartfelt sympathy to the parents and relatives in their sorrow completely filled the house. Interment was made in Greenwood cemetery [Alliance, Nebraska].

Carl Bicknell was about twenty years old and was a young man who had a host of friends in and about Alliance. He was an industrious young man and held the respect and esteem of all who knew him. The taking away of a young man of his calibre is a distinct loss to any community and is no exception to Alliance. The accident which resulted in his death happened about 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon a mile east of this [Alliance] city on the road near the Harris ranch.

William Rice and Carl Bicknell left Alliance the first of last week, going to the former's ranch north of Gordon on the Indian reservation. The return trip to Alliance was being made. The two men ate dinner Saturday noon at Gordon and were bound for Alliance. The car they were riding in was a Chalmers and belonged to Mr. Rice. It took them less than five hours to come from Gordon to the place where the accident happened, about a mile from Alliance. The distance from Gordo to Alliance is seventy miles across country. This makes an average speed for the distance of about fifteen miles an hour, but as they neared the city they became anxious to get home and so were running at a rate of probably thirty-five to forty miles an hour.

The exhaust on the car was open, according to a statement made by Mrs. R. L. Harris and two children and a hired man, Martin Wilson, all of the Harris ranch. They heard the car coming before it was in sight.

South of the Harris ranch the car hit a small culvert and left the road. In the effort to get back to the road the rear wheels skidded against the bank, the wheels having hit an icy stretch in the bottom of the ditch. Two of the wheels were wrecked when the car smashed against the bank, and the car turned turtle. Bicknell was pinned to the ground. His chest was crushed into a space of about three inches. Neither of the men could jump when the accident happened as the side curtains on the car were down and hooked. William Rice, in some unaccountable manner, escaped with but a few bruises, just another evidence of the freakishness of automobile accidents.

Within a very few minutes after the accident happening, Henry Rust happened along, and he, with the assistance of others who gathered there, lifted the car off the unconscious man. The man was immediately taken to the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bicknell, 518 Toluca, in this city. A physician was immediately called and every effort made to save th young man's life, but efforts were fruitless. Internal hemorrhages set in and Carl Bicknell passed out of this life, relieved forever from his pain and siffering.

When help arrived on the scene of the accident, they were confronted with a pitiful sight. William Rice was attempting with all his might to lift the automobile from off his companion's chest. There were tears in his eyes and his face showed the greatest suffering and he stood there bending every energy in his effort to get the car off the seemingly lifeless body of his companion. The accident left him stunned in a way. It is an experience that is bound to remain vivid in his memory - the suddenness of it, his inability to do anything to prevent it, and the sight of his friend there under the car, his chest crushed, and life apparently gone.

An examination of the car was made Sunday morning by a number of automobile men. The steering rod connecting the two fron wheels was found to be loose, but no one knows whether this occurred before or after the accident.

Mr. Rice says that at the time he thought something was wrong because he could not get the car back into the road, but the whole thing happened in such a short space of time that he can't remember what took place, and in fact does not know the cause.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2015