Postma, Harold E. – d. 1948

KALDENBERG, POSTMA

Posted By: Donna Sloan Rempp (email)
Date: 8/9/2016 at 14:04:31

Monroe Lad Killed By Tractor
Suffocates as Machine Pins Him in Soft Dirt; Father Working Nearby
Monroe – Harold E. Postma, 18, was killed Wednesday afternoon on his father’s farm six miles east of Monroe when the tractor he was driving upset and pinned him beneath it.
Upsets
Young Postma was using the tractor to drag brush which had been cut along the steep bank of a ravine. His father, Richard Postma, who was working nearby, said Harold jumped from the tractor when it started sliding but the tractor upset and landed on him.
The youth’s father rushed to aid the boy and pulled the soft dirt away from his face but the lad died almost instantly. The father then went to the farm of a neighbor, Mark Woody, who along with Roy Marshall, Conn and Orville Kaldenberg, Bill Ely and Harold Vander Pol helped lift the tractor off the boy.
Suffocation
Coroner Ralph Toland said death resulted from suffocation caused when the weight of the tractor forced the youth’s head into the soft ground.
Survivors include the parents, a brother, Hubert of Pella and two sisters, Mrs. Willard Kaldenberg of Pella and Darlene at home.
Funeral arrangements have not been completed.
Source: Newton Daily News; 22 April 1948 (Monroe Silent City, Block 12, row 7; tombstone says 1929 – 1948)