GAST, Wallace Leroy "Wally" 1924-1943

GAST, BAHNSEN

Posted By: Diane M Scott (email)
Date: 6/20/2011 at 09:20:18

Wallace Leroy “Wally” Gast 1924-1943

#1:

YOUTH KILLED IN FARM ACCIDENT
WALLY GAST, 19, DRAGGED HOME BY RUNAWAY TEAM

Osage – Wally Gast, 19, who was fatally injured in a runaway accident in which he was dragged home from a threshing field when his foot caught in a strap of the harness, will be buried Friday.

Services will be at 1:30 p.m. at the Rock Creek Lutheran Church.

Death occurred at a hospital in Mason City at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, about two hours after the lad was found in the lane heading from the Gast farmyard to the adjoining pasture.

Wally, his father and his brothers, had been assisting with the threshing at the Adolph Spaanum farm a mile north of their home Tuesday. He brought in one of the last loads of bundles from the field that evening but since it was getting too late to finish the threshing, the load was left in the rack at the Spaanum farm and Wally started home with his team riding one of the pair of horses and leading the other.

The last persons to speak to him were his father and his brother Birney, who passed him on their way home from the Spaanum farm. They stopped beside him to ask if he was getting along all right with the team, and he assured the he ws. Some little while later Birney went out in the yard to shut the chickens up for the night, and discovered Wally in the pasture lane, hanging from the tangled harness which was still on the horse he was riding, the other being found in the pasture.

He was badly bruised about the head and shoulders, indicating he had been dragged while hanging from the harness.

Wally, the oldest of two sons was born August 23, 1924 on the Boock farm in Cedar Township , just east of the present Gast farm home.
He was graduated from the Plymouth High School with the class of 1942, and had been assisting his father on the farm since.

He is survived by his parents, his brother Birney, 16, and his grandfather Charles Bahnsen of near Rock Falls.

Mason City Globe Gazette, Thursday August 19, 1943
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#2:

Wallace Leroy Gast was born August 3, 1924 to Glen Arthur Gast and Christine (Bahnsen) Gast.
*as per Find A Grave Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery, Meroa, Mitchell, Iowa. (Credit: K. Pike)
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#3:

WALLY GAST LOSES
LIFE; IS THROWN
FROM FARM HORSE

Dragged Under Animal
Quarter of a Mile;
19 Years Old

Wallace Gast, 19-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Gast, was killed Tuesday evening when he was thrown, or fell from a farm horse. He was injured at about 8:30 o'clock and died at the Park hospital at Mason City at 11:10.

"Wally" and his father had been at the Adolph Spaanum farm, 8 miles west and 3 miles south of Osage, helping with the threshing. They worked until dark, but had not finished. Wally however, unhitched their team leaving the harnesses on. He rode one horse and led the other.

Mr. Gast was somewhat uneasy about Wally as the team was young, so he followed along behind for a distance. All seemed well, however, so he turned back to the field.

Just what happened will never be known; either the horses became frightened at something along the road, or Wally slipped with the harness. However, the horses tore into the Gast farm yard, which is a mile south of the Spaanum farm, with Wally still entangled in the harness. Evidence is that he was dragged about a quarter of a mile, at least.

Berney, the younger son of the family, went into the yard and found his brother unconscious. An ambulance was summoned and Wally was rushed to the Park hospital at mason City where he died at 11:10.

Source: Mitchell County Press-News, 19 AUG 1943.
(Credit: K. Kittleson, August 2015)
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#4:

Wallace Leroy Gast was born on August 3, 1924, in Mitchell county, Iowa, on the farm just east of the one on which his parents now reside. He was the oldest son of Glen Gast and Christine Bahnsen Gast.

On October 26, 1924 he was baptized in the Rock Creek church and confirmed in the same church in 1939. He had been a faithful member of his church.

With the closing of Sunday school on last July 18, he had completed his fourth year of Bible class work after confirmation. He had been active in the young people's Luther League and during the year 1942 he served as one of the officers of the League. The testimony of Sunday school teachers and of those who knew him, was that he was interested in Christian teachings, and that his life was based on those teachings.

He was a graduate of the Plymouth high school, with the class of 1942. He had been at home with his parents and assisting with the farming. He was about the work of threshing, coming home from a neighbor's when the tragic accident happened, which took his life at the age of 19 years and 14 days. It came as a shock to the entire community.

Besides his parents and brother, Birney, there remain to mourn his passing, his grandfather, Christian Bahnsen, and a very close friend, Mary Janes Yesek, besides a host of friends and relatives.

Funeral services were held at the Rock Creek Lutheran church on friday afternoon, conducted by the Rev. C. B. Gunderson, and burial was in Rock Creek cemetery.

Casket bearers were former high school classmates and friends who were in his confirmation class. They were: Lowell Olson, Melvin Olson, Harold Norby, James Klemesrud, Irvin Field and Vern Yezek.

Source: Mitchell County Press-News, August 26, 1943 (Credit: K. Kittleson, August 2015)