Reeves, Wilbur 1908-1929

REEVES

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/19/2014 at 07:30:53

Youth is Victim of Wreck
Wilbur Reeves is Killed; Girl Companion Seriously Injured as Car Overturns

Accident blamed on Bad Tire – Ruth Brom in Local Hospital Suffering from Basal fracture of Skull

Miss Ruth Brom’s condition late this afternoon was reported unchanged with “a slight improvement, if anything” being noted.

Wilbur Reeves, 21, was killed about 6 o’clock last evening, death being practically instantaneous, as the result of a fractured skull; Ruth Brom, 17, suffered a severe basal fracture of the skull land Murrill Murphy, 19, suffered bad bruises of both arms when the sport roadster which Murphy was driving overturned on highway No. 32, about three and one-half miles east of Newton.

Reeves, who for the past six months has been employed in the City News Company, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Wicker of Runnells. Miss Brom is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Brom of Newton and Murphy, who is employed in the Buick garage, is the son of Mrs. Edith Murphy, also of Newton.

Condition Serious.

Miss Brom is in the Skiff Memorial Hospital at the present time in a serious (sentence illegible due to paper tear). Physicians believe that unless complications set in, she has a (illegible) chance to recover. She was reported today to be in a semi-conscious state.

According to the story of the accident, as best it could be gathered from Murphy and witnesses of the disaster, the Murphy car was proceeding eastward at a rapid rate of speed, when a back tire went flat, as Murphy swung wide to pass another car going in the same direction, causing the machine to swerve as it hit the gravel in the driveway leading out to the paving from the Ed Miller homestead.

Murphy declared he could feel the tire going flat, but before he could stop the left hind wheel had hit the curbing on the paving, causing the car to turn completely over and hurling Reeves and Miss Brom out of the car onto the road. The driver saved himself by maintaining his hold on the steering wheel, he said. ~ The Newton (IA) Daily News Mon 18 Nov 1929.
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Third Member of Party Escapes with Minor Injuries
Tire Goes Flat
Funeral Tomorrow
After the car had stopped, Murphy got another machine to rush the injured parties to the hospital, and then changed the tire on his own car, driving it back to Newton under its own power. According to the report of the police authorities today, the top of the roadster was smashed in, evidently having skidded along the paving for some feet before finally righting itself.

Wise Carber, who reported the accident, told police that he was traveling about 50 miles an hour, going east, when Murphy passed him. When the Murphy machine had gone about 300 years farther, the car suddenly swerved, skidded, and turned completely over, finally stopping right side up, he declared.

The parents of both victims were immediately notified of the accident and hurried to the hospital.

Brief funeral services will be held for Reeves at the Morgan Funeral Home at 9:00o’clock tomorrow morning, after which the body will be taken to Runnells, where the funeral and interment will take place Wednesday afternoon. ~ The Newton (IA) Daily News Mon 18 Mon 1929.

Transcriber note: This was received from a collection and I expect we will find another with more details of the family and funeral and it will be posted as an addition to this.