Iowa Old Press
Hawarden Independent
April 11, 1940
William Horace Wilbur, 46, was killed and C. G. Osweiler, 42, both of Pocahontas, suffered shock and severe burns on his hands April 5th in a freak accident on highway No. 10 between Sioux Rapids and Marathon. The two men, employed by a Pocahontas construction company, were hauling a ditch dredging machine on a truck. An axle of the truck broke and the men apparently were trying to unload the dredging machine to facilitate repair work when the accident occurred. The dredging machine slipped off center and a long boom swung out and made contact with a highline of the Northwestern Light and Power company about 35 feet from the ground sending 13,200 volts of electricity through the bodies of the two men, who were standing on the ground nearby. The victims were removed to a physician’s office in Marathon where Wilbur was pronounced dead. Osweiler was unconscious some time after the accident. Wilbur was the victim of another accident last year when his arm was caught in a rock crusher and he was confined to a hospital many weeks. Wilbur is survived by his wife, three daughters and a son.