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From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IAHENRY] !! Free Press; Henry Co, IA; July 17, 1879
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 19:56:10 -0600


The Free Press
Mount Pleasant, Henry, Iowa
July 17, 1879

Fatal Accident.
Death of Joseph Jeffries.
Joseph Jeffries on Saturday afternoon was helping get hay on his farm a
short distance east of town. They had just taken in one load and returned for
another. Mr. Jeffries was standing on the hay rack near the rear end of the
wagon. The team made an unexpected start and he fell over backward on the ground
striking upon his head. The jar and strain upon the neck so affected the spinal
column that he was completely paralyzed from the neck down. This occurred about
two o'clock. Dr. Pitcher was sent for and pronounced the case very serious. All
that human skill could do was done but it could not avail. Though perfectly
conscious, the body below the head seemed literally dead. He suffered but
little, complained of pain in his neck and as the fever set in had head ache,
but he gradually failed untill Monday morning at 8:50 o'clock when he quietly
breathed his last.
Joseph Jeffries was born in February 1811 in Beaver county Pennsylvania. He
was therefore in the 69th year of his age at the time of his death. In the fall
of 1854 he removed to Warren county, Illinois, and from there to this county in
1862 when he settled near the town of Winfield. He removed to his present home
near this city in the fall of 1875.
Mr. Jeffries was an unassuming, courageous man of a conservative turn of
mind, his mind once fixed and settled on a course of action he never changed.
Failure only added to his zeal, and nothing short of accomplishing his purpose
satisfied or abated his efforts. He early took his stand against human slavery,
and was an outspoken abolitionist until slavery was abolished but had no
sympathy with the radical political scheme that enfranchised the colored people
before they were at all prepared or fit to vote.
Mr. Jeffries died as he lived with true heroic courage and welcomed the
angel of death as the only deliverer from his sufferings, yet at the same time
he retained his cheerfulness and composure and exhorted all around him to be
calm. His wife survives him. Their only child is our esteemed fellow citizen,
W.J. Jeffries, Esq., Thus closes the long and useful live of Joseph Jeffries.
"After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well."
--
DIED.
HORSEY.- At Newberry, Oregon, June 25, Mrs. Susan Horsey, wife of Lewis S.
Horsey, formerly of this county.
She was a consistent member of the Christian church and passed to the
spirit world leaving a husband and three small children to mourn her loss. The
bereaved family has the sympathy of many relatives and friends here. Her age was
about thirty or thirty-one years. She died from the effects of a cancer from
which she suffered for some eighteen months.
--
Death on the Rail.
Death came in a most frightful manner to Carl J. Anderson, at Glendale,
about midnight Friday, July 4th. As freight No. 17, going west, came into that
place an object was noticed on the north side of the track which was taken to be
nothing more than a dog or an old coat. The train was too near the object to be
stopped at once and when checked it was discovered that a man had been run over
by fifteen cars.- The corpse presented a sickening sight.- The body was severed
in twain at the abdomen, one arm was off, one of the feet crushed, and other
parts of the body badly mutilated. The body was recognized to be that of Carl J.
Anderson, a Swede about 45 years old who had some time been in the employ of the
C.B. & Q., as a section hand at Rome. For three weeks prior to his death the man
had been working for his brother-in-law, Jno. Anderson, a farmer near Lockridge.
The remains were brought to this city and Saturday morning an inquest was held
by the coroner of this place when a verdict was found of accidental death. The
remains were interred Saturday. The body was dragged about twenty-five yards
from the place where it was first struck, the flesh and blood of the man
bespattering the track and ties fully that distance. Over two hundred and thirty
yards west of the spot where the engine first came into contact with the man his
pocket book and a portion of his vest were found. In the pocket book was $15. On
the man's person was as diary, and among other things this written in Swedish,
"If I die I have $46" There was also found a bottle of liquor in one of his
pockets and the supposition is that under the influence of strong drink the man
had resolved to take his life and laid himself on the track with that deliberate
intention. He leaves a son about twenty years of age who is in the employ of
Louis Trobert near Lockridge.-- Fairfield Tribune.

Cathy Joynt Labath
Iowa Old Press
http://www.IowaOldPress.com/



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