TWO LETTS YOUTHS KILLED WHEN AUTO HITS WASHOUT

THOMPSON, LETTS, ESTLE, ELLIOTT, HENDRICKS, TURKINGTON, HENDRIX

Posted By: Judy Kelley, volunteer (email)
Date: 6/3/2010 at 22:39:42

Source: LCHS scrapbook, newspaper clipping with handwritten date of May 22, 1915

HARLEN LETTS AND LEO ESTLE ARE INSTANTLY KILLED IN ACCIDENT.

THIRD MAN INJURED

Harry Thompson of Chicago, Badly Hurt-Recovers to Find Companions Lying Prone Beside Him-Secures Help-Then Faints.

(Journal's Special Service)

Letts, Ia., May 24. - Whirling over a treacherous country road at night, a young autoist with two companions drove a light Ford car into an unsuspected washout. A minute afterward three motionless bodies lay stretched across the silent highway. Sometime afterward one of the figures stirred, wearily, painfully. Lifting the weight of a prostrate companion from his arm he limped slowly away in search of help. But the two other figures lay still, unseeing eyes staring at the overcast sky.

The dead:

HARLAN LETTS, aged 26, owner of the car, prominent young farmer and son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Letts, among the best known residents of Louisa county.

LEO ESTLE, aged 25, also prominent as a progressive young farmer and son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Estle.

The injured:
Harry Thompson, of Chicago, Ill., commission merchant and relative and guest of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Elliott, of Letts.

No Warning of Fate.

The accident, the most serious auto crash which has ocurred in Louisa county, resulted Saturday night when Letts' car in which the three young men were riding, struck a washout in the highway about two feet deep. Some twenty-five feet west of the fatal washout was a mudhole. The driver had swerved to the right to avoid the mudhole and had driven straight into the washout which, according to a statement made today by Louisa County Coroner J.H. Collins, extended half way across the road.

Harry Thompson, the only member of the party who recovered consciousness, declares that there was no hint of the impending doom until the moment of the fatal crash. One of the three, Thompson is not certain which, saw the fatal hole and screamed a warning. It was too late for warnings.

Thompson Gives Alarm; Faints.

When Thompson painfully opened his eyes and gathered his fugitive senses together he found himself supporting the limp body of his friend Estle with an arm around the latter's waist. Vainly he tried to bring Estle back to consciousness. Then he attempted to rouse Letts. Again he failed. Realizing that the men if not dead were very seriously injured he determined to go in search of assistance. Being a stranger to the countryside, he was unaware of the location of the nearest farm house, but he plunged on ahead, staggering through the dark, in grim determination to secure aid for his injured friends. He reached the home of Adam Epperly about half a mile from the accident.

Arousing the occupants of the Epperly home he told of the accident and asked assistance. In his dazed condition, however, he forgot to tell the names of his companions or ask that their people be notified. Back he went to the scene of the accident where his two companions lay motionless. Then remembering his failure to notify their families, he started back to the home of James Hackett. While the Hackett family telephoned news of the accident to the Letts and Estle homes Thompson started back to the two silent figures in the roadway.

But bruised and shaken body tissue was no longer to be denied by a nerve which had accomplished its chief purpose. Thompson as he plodded back, walked more wearily, staggered more painfully. Scarcely had he gone a hundred rods when without a word he slumped down in to the road and lay there as silent, as motionless as his friends.

Car But Slightly Damaged

Here the Hacketts found him and took him in charge as well as the two bodies near the car.

Investigation by the rescuers revealed that the car was practically undamaged. The windshield was broken, the side of the car badly caved in and bent, but it was still in running condition and was later driven back to Letts under its own power.

Though it must have turned turtle the runabout was standing on its wheels, but was facing in the direction of Letts, exactly opposite from the direction in which the young men had been speeding when the accident occurred. It had run fifty feet back on the road along which it had been coming before the crash.

Tenderly neighbors and others cared for the dead and the injured. Dr. T.L. Eland was called. He quickly found that Letts and Estle were long past assistance, both probably having died instantly. Estle's head was cut across the back while Lett's head was crushed across the forehead. The physician then turned his attention to Thompson who had sought aid so pluckily for his friends. After Thompson had recovered consciousness he told the story of the accident or rather of those fragments of it of which he had knowledge and memory.

Scene of Accident.

The car was about three and a half miles straight east of Letts between the Hackett and Epperly farms, when it struck the fatal hole. Of the brief gap between that moment and the time when Thompson began to recover consciousness, nothing is known save as told by the results. The car, it is said, was traveling at a rapid rate of speed considering the darkness of the night and the condition of the road. Striking the mud hole it turned turtle and its occupants were catapulted against the ground with terrific force.

Condition Causes Concern.

Thompson was taken to the Elliott home where he still is. While his condition caused considerable anxiety yesterday, he had so far recovered today that it was believed he had escaped all serious consequences of the accident aside from the terrible nervous and physical shock experienced. He was badly bruised along the back and about the hips, but no bones were broken. For a time it was feared he might have been internally injured but today it is believed there is no likelihood of this.

The bodies of Letts and Estle were taken in charge by J.H. Collins, the local undertaker and Louisa county coroner. They were taken to their respective homes. The garage man who accompanied the physician and undertaker to the scene examined the car and, it is said, found the throttle still open, showing that the young men had not even an opportunity to check the speed of the car.

Community Is Shocked.

News of the accident spread quickly and the entire county was shocked by the tragedy. Letts and Estle were among the most prominent younger men of this community and were well known both at Wapello and Muscatine. Both were the managers of their fathers' farms and both were immensely popular.

Letts Wisconsin Graduate.

Harlan D. Letts was the only son of James H. and Matilda Hendricks Letts. He was born on Line Grove farm, Concord township, Louisa county, December 2, 1891. He is survived by his parents and by two sisters, Mrs. E.C. Turkington, of Loveland, Colo., and Miss Adelia at home. He attended the rural schools near his home and later went to Cornell college at Mt. Vernon. He graduated from the agricultural department of the Wisconsin state university at Madison, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

According to a statement given out today by relatives, Letts, accompanied by Thompson spent the evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hendrix, leaving about 11 o'clock for Letts, where they were joined by Estle and they went for a little ride. Near the Adam Epperly farm they encountered a bad turn in the road and met with the fatal accident.

The Funeral Services.

The funeral for Mr. Letts will be held Tuesday afternoon at the home three and a half miles south of Letts. The services will be conducted by Rev. Mr. Phillips, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church. Interment will be made in the Letts cemetery.

The Estle funeral will be held at 11 o'clock Tuesday morning at the home four miles west of this place. Interment will be made in the Cranston cemetery. Estle is survived by his parents, two brothers, Lawrence Estle and a younger boy, and one sister, Miss Claire. Thompson alone of the three, was a married man.