Bernard L. BALLARD

BALLARD

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/13/2013 at 13:08:06

January 1879 -- June 19, 1905

A sad and fatal accident happened on the railroad crossing just east of the Floyd hotel Monday
evening when Bernie Ballard of Eagle Grove was caught between the bumpers while uncoupling cars
and in twenty minutes died on the hotel lawn without regaining consciousness.
From 60 years ago --- June 1905

Alton Democrat - Alton, Iowa
June 24, 1965

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Funeral Train goes through City
Northwestern Conveys Body of B. L. Ballard to Toledo for Interment. Home in Eagle Grove.

CRUSHED TO DEATH AT ALTON
Caught Between Couplings Monday Evening on Cars With "Man Killer" Attachments.

A funeral train over the Northwestern line passed through the city Wednesday enroute from Eagle Grove to Toledo. It carried the remains of B. L. Ballard, a brakeman, killed Monday evening at Alton. The train was made up of three coaches and beside the corpse carried about seventy-five of the deceased man's trainmen friends and the family. The engine which pulled the train was wrapped in mourning. Ballard was the only support of a mother and several younger brothers and sisters. His home was in Eagle Grove. He was killed while making a coupling. The cars he was attempting to couple were eastern cars of an old type, fitted with "mankillers," as the trainmen call them. There are iron projections from the end of the car to prevent the cam smashing together when they come together hard enough to force the coupling irons back far enough so that the cars otherwise would meet. Ballard did not notice these irons and was caught between them. He walked to the hotel after the accident, but died there almost immediately. Cars fitted with these irons are a curiosity now for they have long since been abandoned by most lines. Hence Ballard was not looking for them.

Webster City Tribune -- Iowa
June 23, 1905

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Brakeman Killed at Alton

Bernard Ballard, a brakeman on the Northwestern local freight, was crushed between two cars which he was trying to couple at Alton Monday evening and almost instantly killed, living just 22 minutes after the accident occurred. He was a young man only twenty-four years of age. His home was at Eagle Grove where his remains were taken the same evening of the accident.

Ireton Weekly Register - Ireton, Iowa
June 23, 1905

[buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo, Iowa]