Emil Franz BUTZIN

BUTZIN, LARSON, SELLS, LOCKHARDT

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/12/2016 at 22:13:28

January 4, 1894 --- February 25, 1929

EMIL BUTZIN, OF WOOLSTOCK, DIES
UNDER LOAD TIES

Bobsled Loaded With Ties Skids Into Ditch Catapulting the Ties on Him

ALIVE WHEN FOUND

Was Badly Crushed, However, and Died Before He Was Extricated.

Emil Butzin, 35, was killed on the road east of Woolstock late yesterday afternoon when a bobsled loaded with old railroad ties skidded off the grade into the ditch. The ties piled on top of him, crushing him badly. He was still alive when help arrived, but died before the pile of ties could be removed.

The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock at Foster’s conducted by the Rev. E. A. Piper of the English Lutheran church, and burial made in Graceland cemetery.

Mr. Butzin had been employed for some time at the Gus Larson farm. The Larson family moved yesterday to the Ed Sells farm east of Woolstock. Mr. Butzin had hauled several loads of household goods on the bobsled and when killed was hauling a load of old railroad ties to be used for fuel. The sled slipped off the grade into the ditch. Butzin was pitched off into the ditch and the load of ties fell on him. He was alone and was not discovered until other people came along the road.

Alive When Found.
Butzin was still alive when the first car came along. By the time this man and others had come to the rescue and had taken the ties off him, however, he was dead, crushed by the pile of ties that were catapulted on him.

Mr. Butzin was a brother of Mrs. Gus Larson of this city. There is also a second sister, Mrs. E. J. Lockhardt, of Chicago. He was unmarried.

Butzin Alone.
The accident was not witnessed by anyone, but it was apparent to all just how it happened. The roads everywhere are badly drifted with snow and travel over them is dangerous, either with cars or bobsleds. The roads in the vicinity of Woolstock have been all but impassable for cars for some time and farmers who have bobsleds have been using them, as they are much more safe and get over roads where cars would stall. The place in the road where the accident occurred is badly drifted and slippery. When the sled skidded over and the load fell off, the team did not run away, but were standing in the road where the sled skidded off when found by passerby.

February 26, 1929 -- source unknown