Pollmeier, George d. 1951

POLLMEIER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 12/8/2010 at 09:08:30

Colfax Man Killed, Hit By Train

George Pollmeier Hit Early Sunday Morning Was Painter at Colfax

COLFAX (Special) - A 52 year old Colfax man was killed when hit by a train early Sunday morning, the second such accident on the Rock Island in a two-night period. He was George Pollmeier, a painter.

Mrs. Alice Nancy Hallon, 56, was killed Friday night at Mitchellville when she either fell or sat down on the tracks in the path of the speeding westbound Rocket.

Pollmeier was killed sometimes between midnight Saturday and early Sunday morning. His body was discovered along the tracks about 6:15 o'clock by Arden Potts and Jim Kinnelley, both of Colfax and workers for the Booth and Olsen Construction firm.

County Coroner Ralph Toland said the body was found about 200 feet west of the Colfax depot, six feet north of the track. Pollmeier's shoes were found about 40 feet east of the body, apparently knocked off when he was hit.

Toland said Pollmeier was hit by a westbound train. His left arm was mangled and his skull crushed. Which train hit him was not determined. The Corn Belt Rocket goes through Colfax about 2:47 in the morning. There also are fast freights going through during the night, many of them extra trains re-routed this way because of flooded tracks in Missouri.

Pollmeier was seen in Colfax around midnight.

Toland said Pollmeier's death definitely was due to accident.

Pollmeier lived in a one room house about two blocks north of the spot where his body was found. He normally went home by following the railroad tracks, Toland said. Pollmeier lived in Colfax about three years.

He lived alone and was divorced. He had one son in Ohio, two daughters and two brothers in Ft. Madison. The body was sent to Ft. Madison today.

There was over $21 in his billfold when the body was found. Sheriff Ray Barber worked with Toland in investigating the accident. ~ The Newton Daily News, August 1951