Wiersma, F. abt 1830-1901

WIERSMA

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg (email)
Date: 5/1/2012 at 13:25:08

Sioux County Herald of Jun 5, 1901 p. 5
A Fatal Accident.
Tbe Orange City crew of track workmen on the Omaha road met with an accident last Saturday afternoon about three miles the other side of Sheldon which resulted fatally to one of tbe crew and in seriously injuring another.
The particulars of tbe accident as told to a HERALD representative are substantially as follows: The crew was working out six miles beyond Sheldon" and about five o'clock they put the hand cars on the track to pull into town to catch a freight train to Alton, from which place they were to come to their homes in Orange City to spend Sunday as usual. They had covered about half the distance to Sheldon when the accident occurred.
The first car carried six men and was closely followed by the second which contained seven men. The foreman of the crew was hurrying the men and they were running at a dangerous rate of speed, when F. Wiersma lost his hold on the handle bar and being unable to regain it, tottered and fell. In falling be caught hold of F. J. Vanden Berg and took him with him.
Both men fell on the track and the second car was following so closely it was impossible to stop it in time to save the unconscious men and it passed
over them, throwing its occupants into a ditch but fortunately none of them were severely injured. Wiersma was dead when picked up and Mr. Van den Berg was taken to Sheldon in an unconscious condition, where Dr.
Cram restored him to consciousness and dressed his wounds.. Later he was placed in a passenger coach attached to a freight train and brought to Alton, there a stretcher was arranged on a spring wagon and he reached home at 11 o'clock in the evening. His family had been told that he had been slightly hurt, a few minutes before be arrived, but had no knowledge of the serious nature of his wounds and were very much shocked. Mr. Van den Berg has three ribs and a finger broken and is frightfully bruised and cut all over the body. A bruise along the side of the head and neck is considered a very serious wound. Though seriously injured, his physician says if no unforeseen complication sets in he will recover. The body of Wiersma was brought from Sheldon Monday morning and was interred in the Orange City cemetery in tbe afternoon. He was 71 years old and had no family.
(In an August report in the Alton Democrat it was reported that Mr. Wiersma had a wife and family in Holland and his housekeeper was filing for services agains the estate. There was a Former Wiersma born in Friesland Neth in 1830 and a Fokke born in 1831. His exact identity could not be determined)