Glen Ness (ca.1919-1933)

NESS

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 4/3/2010 at 12:14:05

The Roland Record, Roland, Story County, Iowa, Wednesday, March 29, 1933.

BOY FROZE TO DEATH

The body of Glen Ness, 14, son of G. C. Ness of Marshalltown, and a nephew of Gaylord Ness of this place, was found frozen on the ground in a ditch along the Northwestern railroad right of way, half a mile east of Ames Thursday morning.

The boy apparently had been dead several days, evidence indicating that his body had laid there since prior to the snow storm of the previous week end. He disappeared from his home a week before.

His identity was established thru a card he carried in the pocket of his overall jacket he wore. He was very poorly dressed, wore no stockings, and had no laces in his shoes. One shoe was partly off.

Information from Marshalltown led to the belief that the boy had boarded a freight train to ride several blocks to his home in Marshalltown, as he had been in the habit of doing, and that on reaching the spot where he usually got off, discovered the train was going too fast. A pail he was known to have been carrying was found at this place.

The supposition is that the boy clung to the train until it reached Ames where it slowed down on entering the yard at the east city limits. Whether is fell or tried to climb off the train remains a mystery, but it is possible he may have rolled down the 20-foot embankment on the south side of the railroad, and being dazed lay in the wide sludge ditch extending east from the old gas plant until he froze to death.

It is also possible that he climbed from the train and made his way down the bank, but was so numb with cold he was unable to go further.

The body was noticed about 8:45 a. m., Thursday by trainmen on a freight which entered the city from the east.

The funeral was held Saturday at 9:30 at Marshalltown and at 2:30 in the North Petri church north of Story City, where the family formerly belonged. Interment was made in the Mamrelund cemetery. A number of relatives and friends from this community were in attendance.