Miss Fay Fagerstrom (-1917)

FAGERSTROM, BELL

Posted By: Gail and Dennis Bell
Date: 5/30/2005 at 22:06:57

THE MAXWELL TRIBUNE, Maxwell, Story County, Iowa, Thursday, September 6, 1917, page 1. "MISS FAY FAGERSTROM MEETS TRAGIC DEATH - Struck by train at Melbourne Friday Evening and Ground to Death Beneath Wheels. - In attempting to cross the tracks at Melbourne last Friday to board what she supposed was the incoming train, Miss Fay Fagerstrom was struck by the engine of the train which proved to be an extra freight, running at a high rate of speed, and instantly killed, her body being ground to pieces beneath the train. Miss Fagerstrom was on her way from Ottumwa to Maxwell to take up her duties as teacher in the schools here of which her sister, Miss Grace Fagerstrom, has been principal for the past year. Reports as to the terrible accident are conflicting. Several passengers were waiting at the C. M. & St. P. depot for No. 37 and it seems that the incoming freight was taken for the passenger by all in waiting. Someone announced that the train was coming and a rush was made for the opposite platform, some reaching it and others stopped on the depot side, the unfortunate young lady being caught by the pilot and hurled under the wheels. Miss Grace Fagerstrom was at the depot in Maxwell with a party of girl friends and teachers waiting for her sister when the telegram came announcing the accident. The victim of the accident had taught at Maynard, Iowa, the past year, and had been employed as teacher of the second and third grades in the Maxwell schools and was just returning from a vacation with an aunt at Ottumwa and with other relatives in eastern Iowa. In addition to her sister, Grace, Miss Fagerstrom is survived by her father, G. P. Fagerstrom, of Gering, Neb.; two brothers, F. A. Fagerstrom, of Kansas city, and G. P. Fagerstrom, Jr., of Topeka, Kans., and a grandmother, Mrs. M. E. Bell, of Eddyville.