Frank Kremer

KREMER

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 8/18/2018 at 08:33:08

6 June 1895 - West Branch Times

The following account of the sad accident is copied from the Sterling, (Ill.) Standard. The remains were received here by the distressed parents last Thursday morning, and intered that afternoon.

"This morning as train No. 181, west bound, was passing Galt Station on the C.& N.W. Ry., three miles west of this city, two men attempted to board the train as it passed the tool house. One of them succeeded in getting aboard but the other missed his hold and footing, and was thrown under the train and horribly mangled by the cruel wheels. He was instantly killed, the body being left immediately in front of the station house on the south track. The leg was completely severed from the body, and trunk crushed in a horrible manner. The body was carried into the ware room and Coroner Daird telegraphed for, who came up on the 10 a.m. train and held an inquest.

A STANDARD representative reached the scene about an hour after the accident occurred. From the dead man's comrade, who gave his name as E. B. Martin, it was learned that the man killed was named Frank Kremer, that he was about 19 years of age, and that his parents reside about two miles south of West Branch, Iowa. The two in company with a burley fellow who claims to be a steamboat fireman from Chicago, were tramping. They were run out of this city last evening by special detectives employed by the C. & N. W. Ry., and walked to Galt, where they spent the night in an empty box car stand on the side track. At 7:40 a.m. they attempted to board the rapidly moving train, with the result stated above.

The operator at Galt telegraphed to the deceased's father at West Branch, Ia., but at last accounts had received no response, and it is probable that the body will be interred in the potter's field at the county's expense.

A solicitor, or agent, who was present at Galt this morning, stated that he knew the young man's father, and that he is a well to do farmer. It is a sad ending to a brief but probably reckless life."