Thomas Elwood Stanley (1927)

CROFF, GUTH, HOCKETT, LATHROP, LUSH, STANLEY, TAYLOR

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 2/1/2011 at 08:48:52

The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, May 12, 1927
Page 6

Prominent Earlham Man Dies Suddenly

Earlham, May 12. Special—T. E. Stanley, a prominent business man of Earlham for thirty-five years, died quite suddenly at the Methodist hospital in Des Moines Wednesday evening at eleven o’clock. He with Mrs. Stanley had started for Clarinda where he was to broadcast over KSO. They got as far as Menlo and he was stricken with a severe pain in his back. His son, Chester Stanley, daughter, Mrs. Charles Lush, and husband and a friend, Mrs. John Mendenhall, all of Earlham, left as soon as word was received from Menlo. Mr. Stanley was taken to the Methodist hospital but was unconscious when they got there and he never recovered.

Mr. Stanley was sixty-four years old and was the inventor and manufacturer of the Stanley garden plow.

He is survived by his wife, five daughters, Mrs. George Guth and Mrs. Ray Taylor of Long Beach, California, Mrs. Lawrence Lathrop of Washington, D. C., Mrs. Earl Croff of Grinnell, and Mrs. Charles Lush, of Earlham; one son, Chester Stanley, who is depot agent in Earlham; one sister, Mrs. Lindley Hockett of Earlham, and one brother, Bert Stanley, of Doniphan, Kansas.

Definite funeral services have not as yet been made but it is thought they will be held Sunday or Monday at Earlham. The two daughters of Long Beach, California, are the only children from a distance, who are coming.
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Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
Thursday, May 12, 1927

T. E. Stanley At End of His Journey

Death Strikes Down One of Community’s Outstanding Figures in the Midst of His Work. Estimate of His Friends Expressed by Spontaneous Outburst of Sorrow.

The sudden news came as a most grievous shock to a host of local friends this morning that Tom Stanley was dead. Stricken by a rare malady shortly before noon Wednesday while enroute to Clarinda, and hurried to a Des Moines hospital, it was generally known that he was in a serious condition, but death was hardly suspected. It seemed beyond the possible that the man we had seen so cheerful, so active on the morn could have been so quickly stilled by the swift destroyer. Mr. Stanley did not much more than realize the seriousness of the attack until unconsciousness came to his relief. Less than twelve hours later his life ebbed away.

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley left Wednesday forenoon in their touring car for an over night visit at Clarinda, where they planned to visit the broadcasting station of the Berry Seed Co. and see the Stanley plow advertised over the air at close range. Tom laid down his hammer for a couple of days, little knowing he was laying down his life work. Like two children on a holiday, Tom and Lizzie started away in high spirits. So they had started a year ago to the western land of enchantment, only this trip was to end in the strangest adventure vouchsafed to man.

Driving along the road just west of Menlo shortly before eleven o’clock, Mr. Stanley suddenly uttered an exclamation, brought the car to a standstill at the side of the road and collapsed, evidently in terrible distress. He entreated his wife to secure help, telling her between clenched teeth of an overpowering pain in his back.

A farm home was nearby and with the help of a young man it was possible to remove the sufferer to a couch and within a few minutes relieve him with hypodermics administered by a Menlo physician. Earlham relatives were informed at once, and Dr. Day, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Stanley, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Lush and J. R. Mendenhall arrived shortly afternoon in the Day and Mendenhall cars.

The diagnosis of the Menlo doctor was gallstones or “gravel” while Dr. Day surmised the trouble to be a perforation of the stomach or intestine. In either case immediate operation was indicated and arrangements were made at once to obtain the ambulance from Stuart. The party left Menlo for Des Moines at about four o’clock, Dr. Day and Mrs. Stanley accompanying the patient. He weakened rapidly on the trip and was unconscious when Methodist hospital was reached. The life of the sufferer had reached such a low ebb at this time that nothing could be done, and he passed away a few minutes before eleven o’clock.

A post mortem revealed the presence of a large quantity of blood in the peritoneal cavity, and it was recognized that death had come as the result of the rupture of an artery in the intestines, combined with shock and the diffusion of blood through the cavity. A bullet through the abdomen or stomach would have had much the same effect of hemorrhage, perforation and shock. The condition is said to be a very rare one, and is caused by a wasting away of the structure of the artery. There is no remedy in medicine or surgery for such an accident, which is allied to apoplexy.

The body was brought to Earlham in the early morning hours by Messrs. Welch and Benson, and funeral services will probably be held Sunday afternoon, awaiting the arrival of the daughters Mrs. Leota Taylor and Mrs. Mary Guth from southern California. Mrs. Lois Lathrop of Washington D. C. will be unable to make the trip, and neither will Mr. Stanley’s one surviving brother, Albert Stanley, residing in Kansas. The deceased is also survived by one sister, Mrs. L. L. Hockett, who resides in Earlham. His brother, P. L. Stanley preceded him to eternity in June, 1925.

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