Byal, William Lowell – 1933-1973

BYAL, POORBAUGH, WALTERS

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 7/14/2022 at 08:24:02

William Byal Dies In Train-Tractor Accident
The death of a rural Mingo man shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 4th, marked the first traffic fatality for Jasper County in 1973.
William Lowell “Bill” Byal, 39, was reported dead at the scene of a tractor-rain accident at a gravel road crossing a mile east of Mingo.
Jasper County Coroner, Stuart E. Sybesma said this morning that Byal, driving a John Deere tractor with cab, drove onto the tracks and apparently didn’t see or hear the eastbound freight train approaching. The train was believed traveling at about 20 miles-an-hour and came to a complete stop within a quarter-of-a-mile from the point of impact, railroad officials said.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the United Methodist Church in Mingo.
Rev. Edward Douglass, former pastor and Rev. David Pacholke, pastor of the church, conducted the services with burial in Union Chapel Cemetery in Mingo.
Masonic rites were conducted at the Walters Funeral Chapel Saturday night, Jan. 6th.
Survivors are his wife; a son, James Arthur, 13; two daughters, Cynthia Ann, 17, and Virginia Jeanne, 11; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Byal and a brother, Douglas Craig Byal of Marion.
Mr. Byal was a member of the Baxter Masonic Lodge and the Jasper County Farm Bureau.
He was a farmer.
The son of William Roscoe and Edna Walters Byal, he was born June 11, 1933 in Mingo and was a 1952 graduate of Mingo Community High School.
He was married to Doris Edna Poorbaugh April 24, 1954 in Colfax.
Serving as pallbearers were: Rodney Altes, James Baldwin, Robert Beard, Wayne Byal, Donald Crozier, Charles Gearhart, William Lintz, Carroll Rumbaugh and Vernon Sanders.
Flowers – Mrs. Dennis Cummings and Mrs. Jack Womeldorff.
Source: The Colfax (IA) Tribune; Thursday, January 11, 1973, page 1