SHAFFER, A. M. -1927

SHAFFER, BRECHTBILL

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 4/12/2015 at 14:49:04

Grundy Man Frozen To Death

A. M. Shaffer Loses Life in Wyoming Blizzard

Mention was made in last week's correspondence in The Register that A. M. Shaffer, formerly of Grundy Center, was lost in a Wyoming blizzard. A later report verified the fears of the family of the missing man. The body was found on Tuesday but the report does not give information as to where death took place.

Mr. Shaffer was for many years night operator at the Rock Island station in Grundy Center. While here he married Miss Mertie Brechtbill, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Brechtbill, of Conrad. Mrs. Shaffer was a telephone operator at this place for a number of years. Shortly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer moved to Colorado and they have lived there continually. Mr. Shaffer gave up the work of telegraph operator when he left here and at the time of his death he was a traveling representative of the Denver union stockyards at Denver.

The following account of the tragedy is taken from a Denver paper:

Fears were expressed Monday that A. M. Shaffer, 38 years old, traveling representative of the Denver Union Stockyards, perished in a blizzard near Hanna, Wyo., Friday night.

His automobile, locked and with the radiator drained, was found Monday morning parked on the Lincoln highway five miles south of Hanna, which is forty miles east of Rawlins.

It is believed that Shaffer, unable to proceed in any direction because of the blizzard, abandoned his car and struck out for Hanna, which was the nearest settlement. As no trace has been found of him and nothing has been heard from him, it is feared he was overcome by fatigue and cold, fell in the snow and froze to death.

So intense was the storm that he must have wandered blindly for he could not see in any direction and no light from any house could pierce the blizzardly curtain which winter had stretched over the country in every direction.

"Shaffer was on his way back to Denver," Traffic Manager L. M. Pexton of the stockyards said Monday.

"He called up from Green River, Wyo., Friday. He was due in late Saturday night. He left Green River on time. He passed thru Rawlins, and that's the last place he was seen so far as we can learn."

"We began to worry about him when he didn't show up Saturday night. Monday morning the discovery of his car lead us to fear the worst."

The fact that the machine had been locked and the radiator drained indicated that Shaffer had abandoned it to seek shelter elsewhere. Inquiries at Hanna, at the Elk Mountain ranch and other ranches in that vicinity failed to clear up the mystery.

Deep drifts of snow cover a considerable part of the territory where Shaffer is believed to have made his last fight for life. Searchers say he may be buried under any one of these.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 10 February 1927, pg 1