Nicholl, Emma Cameron (1931-1946)

NICHOLL, DOUGLAS, STALEY

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 2/7/2021 at 09:21:02

Webster City Freeman, Webster City, Iowa, Thursday, March 21, 1946

Emma Nicholl, 14, First Casualty in City in Two Years

Webster City's traffic safety record which had remained intact since October, 1944, was broken Tuesday following the accidental death here Monday evening of Emma Nicholl, 14, who was instantly killed when struck by an auto near the intersection of Union street and Highway 20.

No criminal action is contemplated against Francis Powell, Webster City taxi driver, whose auto was involved in the accident, Lloyd Karr, county attorney, declared Tuesday noon. An inquest, however, has been called by Coroner M.B. Galloway for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Foster's funeral home.

Emma, daughter of Mrs. Myrtle Nicholl of this city, was struck while pushing a bicycle along the edge of Highway 20 just west of the Chicago and North Western viaduct in the accident which occurred about 9 p.m.

Coroner Galloway, who met with Sheriff E.R. Lear, Police Officer Paul Mevissen, County Attorney Karr and witnesses in a special hearing held at Foster's funeral home immediately after the accident, announced that the girl had died immediately of an apparent skull fracture. She also had suffered compound fractures of both legs below the knees.

Funeral services will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at Foster's with the Rev. J.A. Farnham officiating and burial being made in Graceland cemetery.

Although details concerning the accident at first gave the impression of a hit-and-run case, later developments indicate that Powell's taxi was directly involved in the girl's death, Sheriff E.R. Lear and police officials stated.

Powell, who was driving west at the time of the mishap, said he knew he hit the girl's bicycle but told authorities he did not know he had struck the girl. According to his testimony he believed a previous car had hit her.

There is no question of a hit-and-run charge against the taxi driver for he stopped at the scene of the accident and had Police Officer Mevissen notified of the mishap. The bicycle was also struck by an auto driven by Wilbur McIntire of this city who was following the taxi and who was forced to stop when the bike became entangled underneath his auto.

At the time of the mishap, Emma was accompanied by her smaller brother, Lester, who was pulling a wagon and was reportedly walking along the shoulder of the highway. The boy, when questioned, could give no information as to what vehicle had struck his sister, simply saying that "one minute she was there and the next minute she was gone."

Information which apparently links the taxi with the accident was furnished Iowa state highway patrolmen at Des Moines where the officials stopped a Ruan oil transport for questioning upon request of Sheriff Lear.

The driver remembered that he had flickered his lights at two approaching autos when he was approaching the viaduct in Webster City while heading east on his way to Des Moines. Patrol officials report the truck driver remembered seeing the cars approach and at the same time he saw the youngsters walking west. He also reportedly saw the white-topped taxi pass the auto ahead.

The truck apparently passed the scene of the accident before it occurred and the trucker did not stop because he didn't know a mishap had happened. Through description of the truck furnished the sheriff's office, the transport was located at Des Moines about midnight.

Law officials say that both Powell and McIntire remembered the truck flicking its lights, a custom which the truck driver said he followed to show oncoming motorists his lights were on dim.

Marks on the taxi, the sheriff's office said, indicate the car struck both the bike and the girl, whose body was tossed to the right side of the pavement and came to rest approximately 45 feet from where she was hit. The rear wheels of the auto apparently passed over the girl's legs, fracturing them badly.

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Tuesday, March 19, 1946

Emma Cameron Nicholl, daughter of James and Myrtle Nicholl, was born on a farm in Oak Glenn community northwest of Webster City. When she was ten years old the family moved to this city. She had been attending school at Washington Central, where she was in the eighth grade.

She was baptized in the Methodist faith and was a member of the Methodist church. She was active in Sunday school and in the Queen Esther Missionary society.

She was preceded in death by her father, who died in 1941. She is survived by her mother, three brothers, David, Lester and James, one half-sister, Mrs. Helen Douglas of St. Charles, Iowa, and her grandmother, Mrs. E.C. Staley of this city.