Peters, Claude Hugo 1889-1912

PETERS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 5/7/2011 at 15:06:13

The Grinnell Herald; March 1912

CLAUDE H. PETERS IS VICTIM OF ACCIDENT

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Grinnell Boy, Expert Electrician, Killed by Gas explosion in Kankakee, Illinois.

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SKULL IS FRACUTRED BY A MANHOLE

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Body Brought Home by father, H.G. Peters--Funeral to Be Sunday Afternoon.

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The body of Claude H. Peters, killed by an unfortunate accident in Kankakee, Ills., last Tuesday afternoon was brought to Grinnell yesterday afternoon by his father, H.G. Peters, who hurried to the scene of the accident but too late to see his son alive. The funeral will be held from the home two miles southwest of the city, at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, this late date having been fixed while an effort was made to find another son, Herbert, who is in Minnesota.

Claude Peters was a young man of great promise. He graduated from the Grinnell high school in 1906 and from the electrical engineering department at Ames in 1910. At the time of his death he was one of the expert electricians for the Central Union Telephone Company of Chicago, engaged in traveling from place to place repairing defects in the service. He was 23 years of age.

The accident which caused his death was due to a gas explosion, which came while he and his companion were endeavoring to remove the iron lid on a manhole, which was frozen down. The explosion threw off the massive iron disk, weighing 300 pounds, and it struck the young engineer in the face, fracturing the skull and throwing him violently backward. His companion rushed to his side, and saw his serious condition and had him taken at once to the hospital. This was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. At ??? o'clock the next morning he passed away without recovering consciousness.

The news of his death is a heavy blow to the members of the family and a large circle of friends who had watched with pride and interest a career which was beginning so brightly.