Iowa
Old Press
Spencer Reporter
Spencer, Clay county, Iowa
October 15, 1924
TWO INJURED IN AUTO SMASHUP - NEVA SHARPE AND CLARENCE
INMAN HURT AND INMAN CAR WRECKED - YOUNGSTERS RIDING ALONE
Hit Another Auto, a Fire Hydrant and a Tree and Turned Over at
Main and Twelfth
Neva Sharpe, fourteen years old, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. M.
Sharpe, and Clarence Inman, fifteen years old, son of Mr. and
Mrs. William E. Inman, were seriously injured last Saturday noon
when the Inman auto, in which Neva and Clarence were riding,
collided with Gus Anderson’s car, a fire hydrant and a tree
and turned over in the Anderson front yard at the northeast
corner of Main and Twelfth streets. The children, the only
occupants of the Inman car, were picked up dazed and bleeding
from a litter of broken glass when the car came to rest on the
sidewalk on its right side. J. W. Cory, Jr., took them to the
hospital in an auto.
It was found that Neva had two deep cuts in her scalp and the
side of her forehead, two bruises on her back, cut on her foot
and scratches on her face. The vein in her temple was cut and she
bled profusely. It was at first feared that her spine had been
injured, as she complained that her back hurt her, but her
parents said Monday that her back was not seriously hurt and that
she was expected to recover. Clarence’s nose was broken and
he was considerably scratched and bruised.
The Inman car, a late model Buick touring car with a winter top,
was almost totally wrecked. Clarence had taken Neva down town in
the car to get a loaf of bread that her mother wanted, and they
were returning to the Sharpe home at Main and Fourteenth street
when the accident happened.
Mr. Anderson driving north on Main street just ahead of them
swung to the left as he approached Twelfth street to get room for
a turn east on Twelfth. The youngsters concluded that he was
going to turn west and they proceeded to go past him on his east
side. As he turned toward the east, the Inman car collided with
his, knocking off one of his hub caps. Then, forced out of its
course by the collision and the attempt to avoid it, the Inman
car struck and broke the cover off an iron fire plug just inside
the Main street east curbing a dozen feet north of Twelfth,
struck and deeply gashed the east side of a tree a few feet
further north, and rolled over and stopped on the sidewalk.
[transcribed by L.Z., November 2013]