Clarence Butlett Loses Life died 1931

BUTLETT, HILKEN, MARKUS, DIDESCH, STREFF

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 3/10/2017 at 19:40:45

Dubuque Telegraph Herald, November 5, 1931

MAN KILLED IN AUTO
ACCIDENT NEAR MASSEY

Clarence Butlett Loses Life
And two Are Hurt When
Car Turns Over

Clarence Butlett, was instantly killed, and his younger brother, Alfred, and LeRoy Markus, 19, were slightly injured about 3 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon in which an automobile in which they were riding left the roadway and turned over in a ditch at the side of the Massey Station road.

The accident occurred less than 200 years from the home of the parents of the Butlett brothers, and the crash was heard by their father and mother. The father, George Butlett, was one of those who helped lift the automobile which had pinned the men to the ground.

When the accident occurred the three men were enroute to Rockdale. They had just left the Butlett home and were riding in a light truck with a roadster body seat. The three men were seated in the one seat. Markus, who lives near Massey Station, was driving the car. Clarence Butlett was sitting on the other side of the seat, and his brother sat between him and Markus.

Something Went Wrong

The car had just crossed the first bridge west of the Butlett home on Massey Road when, the two survivors of the accident told the County Coroner Al Didesch, something apparently went wrong with the steering apparatus. The car traveling about, 25 miles per hour, swerved from the road, ran into the ditch, and overturned.

The cries of Alfred Butlett and Markus, as they lay with Butlett’s brother pinned beneath the car was heard by the elder Butlett and another farmers in the neighborhood. They rushed to where the car lay over turned in the ditch, and lifting it, found the other Butlett boy dead. The others were but slightly injured.

Was Native of County

Clarence Butlett was born Oct. 8, 1901, at Richardsville, and for the past twenty years had lived in Mosalem Township, his parents having moved there from near Richardsville when he was ten years old. He was married Nov. 9, 1926, to Agnes Streff, who, with a seven month old daughter, Mary Elizabeth, survives. Other survivors are his parents Mr. and Mrs. George Butlett; one sister, Mrs. Alice Hilken, Mosalem Township; two brothers, Melchior and Alfred, both of Mosalem Township, and his grandmother, Mrs. Theresa Butlett, Dubuque.

The body has been taken from the Hoffman mortuary to the home of the accident victim’s parents in Mosalem Township. The funeral will be held from his parents’ home at 8:30 o’clock to St. Catherine’s Church, where a mass of requiem will be read at 9 o’clock. Burial will be made in St. Catherine’s Cemetery.