Waterbury, Sarah Louisa, Mrs. Squire A.,1838-1903

WATERBURY, JONES

Posted By: Lydia Lucas-Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/15/2011 at 08:49:03

A FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT.
Mrs. S. L. Waterbury Meets Death in an Accident While Out Riding

On Wednesday afternoon at about half past one o'clock, Mrs. R. O. Schaber, wife of the editor of the Hudsonite, took her mother Mrs. S. L. Waterbury, and two little daughters, Ita and Viola, out for an airing. They took their top buggy and Mrs. Schaber's team, which she usually drives, and as the river has been very high they thought they would drive down to look at the water.

They drove on the bridge spanning the Big Sioux going toward the Iowa side and when the team came to the main bridge the water shining through the wide cracks in the flooring of the bridge frightened the team and they began to back. The glimmer of the sun shining on the water frightened the horses more and more and spite of a furious application of the whip in Mrs. Schaber's hands, and she is as good a horse woman as one will find anywhere, the team kept backing and the buggy struck the railing but this proved rotten and the team, buggy and four inmates went backwards off the bridge, dropping a distance of sixteen feet onto the frozen ground. In some providential way Mrs. Schaber and the little girls were thrown clear of the buggy and horses and sustained only a few bruises and slight injuries, but Mrs. Waterbury did not fare so well for one horse fell across her face and chest and the other horse fell on this horse. The hame on the harness cut a frightful gash extending from the back of Mrs. Waterbury's head to her mouth on the left side clear to the bone crushing her skull and temple on the left side so that she lived but an hour after sustaining these frightful injuries.

One horse was killed, the other badly injured and the buggy was smashed to pieces. It seems almost a miracle that all four occupants of the buggy were not killed and only the hand of Providence saved them from destruction.

Sarah Louisa Jones was born at New Canaan, Conn., May 23, 1838, and was nearly sixty-five years old at the time of her sudden taking away. She was united in marriage with Squire A. Waterbury on Sept. 1, 1857, in the old Connecticut home and they lived together happily for nearly forty years, her husband dying in 1896.

Mr. Waterbury served his country as a soldier throughout the civil war and came west with his family right after the war, taking a homestead in Union county southwest of Hawarden where the family resided for many years and which Mrs. Waterbury owned at the time of her death.

She leaves two sons, four daughters and many other relatives and scores of friends to mourn her loss. Her children are Andrew J. Waterbury of Hudson, I. N. Waterbury of Hawarden, Mrs. Emma Martin of Westfield, Mrs. Josie Waterbury of Akron, Mrs. Stella Frank of Hawarden, and Mrs. R. O. Schaber.

She made her home with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Schaber, here and led a happy and contented life. She was a loving wife and mother and took much comfort in the congenial society of her children and grandchildren and the many friends she has in this vicinity as well as in other places where she is well known, is loved and highly esteemed and respected. She was a good Christian woman and was a member of the Congregational church here. Her loss will be keenly felt by her children who loved their mother very fondly.

A funeral sermon was preached at the home of the deceased by Rev. Bradstreet on Thursday afternoon at one o'clock. Then her earthly remains were taken to Hawarden and laid reverently to rest beside those of her husband who preceded her to that brighter shore five years ago. -- Hudson Hudsonite.

Source: Hawarden Independent, April 2, 1903.

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An article in the Alton Democrat, April 4, 1903, repeats much of the above description of the accident and adds this:

Mrs. Schauber's cries for help brought Roy Parkin, Ray Miner, Harley Cable and Rod Muhlenthaler to the spot. Mrs. Schaber had tried to lift the horses from off her mother but could not move them. Roy Parkin was the first on the scene and he managed to pull the injured lady from under the horses. She was taken to her home in town but nothing could be done for her. Strange to say she was conscious almost to the last and suffered very little pain.