EVANS, William 1893-1929

EVANS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 5/4/2015 at 08:45:50

William Evans Of Beaman Killed In Plane Crash

Was Taking Instructions To Fit Himself For Pilot When Accident Occurred

Karl Lorenzen, Pilot, Receives Fatal Injuries

Accident Happened on Evans Farm Near Beaman Shortly Before Noon Saturday

A deplorable accident occurred Saturday at about 11:15 on the Evans farm two miles south of the town of Beaman when William Evans, a well known farmer, was killed instantly when the plane he was learning to operate crashed to the earth, and the pilot, Karl Lorenzen, of Marshalltown, was fatally injured.

Evans had arranged with Lorenzen to take instructions on operating an airplane and it was while taking his first lesson that the accident happened.

From about seven hundred feet in the air the biplane, a Travel-Air belonging to Walter Lorenzen, of Marshalltown, came nose down into the plowed ground on the Evans farm and less than fifty feet from where the place took off. It is believed that the motor was killed and instead of banking away from the wind, Evans banked into the wind, and the plane was too close to the ground to be righted.

Evans had arranged to take ten lessons of Lorenzen for which he was to pay $50. Lorenzen had previously visited the Evans farm and selected a landing place, and Saturday he came to give the first lesson in the course which was to fit Mr. Evans to become an aviator.

When they were reached after the fall both Evans and Lorenzen were found to be gripping the operating stocks and apparently had frozen to the control. Evans had been over the town of Beaman earlier in the day with Lorenzen and he (Evans) had piloted the plane on that flight.

In falling the plane buried its nose in the soft dirt of the cornfield, situated about a quarter of a mile south of the Evans home. The wheels were sunk to the axles, and left one being broken. Half of the propeller blade had sunk into the earth and had been broken off.

Evans' body was thrown forward, but his hands still clutched the control levers so tightly that it was with difficulty that his body was removed. The body was taken to the Alexander undertaking parlors at Conrad.

Lorenzen was taken from the plane unconscious and given first aid by Dr. Spain, Conrad physician, and afterwards was taken to a Marshalltown hospital. His head was crushed and his lower spine badly injured.

William Evans, the unfortunate farmer, is a son of P. T. Evans, one of the best known residents of the Beaman neighborhood. He was 35 years of age and had lived all his life in the vicinity of Beaman. During the world war he was in the aerial service. He is survived by his widow, father, brother, Mort, cashier of the Conrad State Bank, and a sister, Mrs. Homer Neff, who lives near Beaman.

Karl Lorenzen, 29, the pilot, died in a Marshalltown hospital at 10 o'clock Sunday morning. From the very first it was not thought he could survive his injuries and his death was not unexpected.

Since this terrible accident happened it has become known that Evans had hoped for a long time to become a pilot. As a soldier in the world war he was located in a ground school at Kelley field, Austin, Texas, and was about to become a flying cadet when the armistice put a stop to his plans.

Evans returned home after the war, was married and settled down to farming, but still had the inclination to some day possess a plane and be his own pilot. Negotiations were pending to that end when the awful accident snuffed out his life as well as that of his instructor.

Evans was a graduate of Iowa College at Ames and also attended Cornell College.

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon for the two unfortunate men, Evans at 2 o'clock at his late home near Beaman, and interment was in the Beaman cemetery.

The funeral of Lorenzen was held at 4 o'clock the same afternoon from the Evangelical church at Marshalltown and burial in Riverside cemetery, that city.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 30 May 1929, pg 1