John Klima(died 1917)

KLIMA

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 8/30/2008 at 09:43:25

Maquoketa Excelsior-Record
August 7, 1917

Former Citizen is Killed.
Is Thrown From Hay Rake and Meets Instant Death.
Brought Here for Burial.

John Klima, formerly a citizen of this county, but recently of Owatanna, Minn., was brought back to this city yesterday morning for burial in Mt. Hope cemetery.

Mr. Klima had been at the home of his sons, Frank and Bartley, and was helping them with their haying. They were in the field and the deceased decided to go to the house for a jug of water. He got on the hay rake and started for the house, and that is the last that was seen of him alive.

When the daughter at the house looked up from her work and saw the horses standing at the gate hitched to the hay rake and with one wheel of the machine gone, she knew there must be something wrong, and an investigation took place at once. Mr. Klima was found between the house and the hay field dead where he had met with an accident that caused him instant death. The evidence points to the fact that the wheel of the rake must have accidentally come off. This caused the horses to take fright and run which threw the driver off. In falling his head struck a fence post and the top part of his skull, beginning with the forehead, was torn loose. It was an awful accident and came at a time of course when anything of the kind was least expected.

The body was brought back here for burial, all of his sons and daughters coming except Mary. He was 84 years old and was one of the men of whom everybody speaks well. His wife preceded him a number of years and he leaves four sons and two daughters, John, Bartley, Louis and Frank and Mary and Lizzie to mourn his departure. Services were held at the home before leaving for this place and the body was taken from the train directly to the cemetery.