Holdgrafer, Joseph (1922-1964)

HOLDGRAFER, GREUFE, JOST

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 10/17/2016 at 06:42:22

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Monday, November 9, 1964

Joseph Holdgrafer Fatally Injured in Car-Tractor Crash

Joseph Holdgrafer, 42, Williams farmer, was fatally injured early Saturday evening when his tractor was hit from behind by an auto on Highway 20, two and one-half miles east of the Blairsburg intersection.

Holdgrafer was barely 500 feet from the entrance to his farm yard when his tractor, going east, was hit by a car driven by Gilbert Griffin, 64, Webster City, according to Iowa Highway Patrolman Mike Hogan who investigated the crash. Griffin was not injured in the collision.

The farmer was pinned under the wreckage of the tractor in the mishap which occurred at 7:15 p.m. John Minard, employed at the Holdgrafer farm, and two truckers helped to lift the wreckage from the injured farmer who was rushed to Hamilton county hospital by the Webster City rescue truck. He died at about 9:15 at the hospital.

His death was the fifth fatality of the year on Hamilton county highways.

Holdgrafer and Minard had reportedly been plowing on rented acreage about a mile south of the Holdgrafer farm and were enroute home when the accident occurred. Minard was following in a pickup truck and thus was among the first rescuers on the scene. The tractor was tossed into the ditch by the impact of the crash and was virtually demolished.

Patrolman Hogan estimated damage to the front end of the Griffin car as about $500.

Funeral services for Mr. Holdgrafer will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Mary's Catholic church in Williams with the Rev. Father H.P. Nosbisch officiating. Burial will be in St. Mary's Catholic cemetery at Williams.

Rosary will be at 8 o'clock this evening at Scott's Funeral chapel in Williams.

Mr. Holdgrafer is survived by his wife [Dorothy Greufe who he married August 24, 1950] and seven children: Renee, Kenneth, Brian, Marcia, Alice, Keith and Brent.

Also surviving are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.J. [John Joseph & Elizabeth Jost] Holdgrafer of Williams, three brothers and five sisters.