Schwebach, Raymond, 1932-1934

SCHWEBACH, NIICHEL

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:36

From the Sioux Center News, October 18, 1934:

TRAIN KILLS BABY NEAR ALTON
Tot Toddles Out of Grass Onto Track

ALTON, Ia.—Raymond Schwebach, 21-month-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Schwebach, was killed by a passenger train Saturday. He toddled from long grass into the path of the train a fourth mile east of here.

Mrs. Schwebach had to leave here Saturday to go to a neighboring city. She instructed her eldest daughter to have dinner ready on her return.

The baby was seen playing on the porch at noon by his brothers and sisters. A few minutes later the children returned and found the little boy was gone.

As they started to search, they heard the train whistling on the track near the house after the engineer had seen the child, too late to stop. A neighbor, A. F. Mulder, was the first to reach the baby’s body. –Des Moines Register

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From the Alton Democrat, October 19, 1934:

SMALL BOY’S LIFE SNUFFED OUT BY SPEEDING TRAIN

Raymond, the 21-month-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Ted Schwebach of Alton, made up his mind Saturday to run away from home. He started down the railroad track without saying a word to his sister, Marie, at just about noon. The noon gas-electric train from the east came along as he struggled up the grade onto the ties. Raymond put his finger in his mouth as he turned to look and see what was making all that noise. When Marie picked him up there was a small triangular hole in his forehead; his chin, nose and head were scraped as if he had fallen on a sidewalk. Raymond’s skull was crushed by the impact, although there was very little outward sign of the fatal injuries he received.

Harry Quint, the motorman of the train, said that when he first saw the child he was crawling up the grade toward the track through the weeds and that he, Quint, thought it was a dog. The child had just reached the end of the ties when the motorcar hit him and there was no chance whatever to stop the train, Quint said. The boy had not quite reached the track when Quint saw that it was not a dog. The train stopped as soon as possible, and a considerable number of people gathered at the scene in a very few minutes.

At the time the tragedy was occurring over on the railroad track, Raymond’s sister, Marie, and the other children, were calling him. He often hid and then popped out unexpectedly from his hiding place. Marie said she was uneasy at the time but was expecting him to show up at any moment. One of the children had gone down the lane looking for him when Art Mulder came to ask if the baby was missing. Marie ran to the place where the baby lay and picked him up. Art brought the body to town in his car. The northwestern rails are only about 60 feet from the Schwebach home southeast of Alton, but the baby had never gone to the track before.

Funeral services were held at St. Joseph’s Catholic church at Granville Monday morning at 9 o’clock, with Rev. Illg officiating.

Raymond was born on December 26, 1932, so was 21 months and 17 days of age when his life was so suddenly ended. He was a charming little boy and the shock to his brothers and sisters and to his parents who were absent from home at the time was a terrible one.

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His death certificate has him as Raymond Peter Schwebach; born December 26, 1932 at Alton; parents Theo Schwebach, born at Alton, and Anne Niichel, born at Amby [Amboy?], Indiana; died at 12:05 p.m. October 6, 1934; “hit by trolley car ¼ mile east of Alton on N Western railway tracks causing fracture of base of skull and other face and head injuries, killed instantly.” Buried at Granville, Iowa. (He does not appear in the Sioux County Cemetery Index)