Woodrow Schelhorse Died 1923

SCHELHORSE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen -Volunteer (email)
Date: 12/7/2018 at 20:45:36

Sioux City Journal
15 January 1923

One Killed And 4 Hurt In Accident
Boy, Coasting In Street, Is Struck By Car; Dies
Top Of His Head Torn Off

Two Women Injured in Auto Collisions – Pedestrian Falls to Sidewalk and Suffers Broken Leg—Lad Bruised When Hit by Car

One boy was killed, and four other persons were injured in accident Sunday.

Woodrow Schelhorse, 9 years old, 822 West Sixth Street, was killed while coasting down a hill in Otoe Street between West Fifth and Sixth Streets. He was unable to stop his sled when he reached the intersection of Otoe and West Sixth Streets and crashed into the front of an automobile that was being driven west in Sixth Street by R. C. Casey, 2224 Pierce Street.

The boy struck the front axle of the car with such force that the top of his head was literally torn off. Death was instantaneous.

The boy’s father, O.D. Schelhorse, 2610 West Seventh Street, signed information charging Casey with manslaughter. Casey was later released on a signed bond of $5,000.

Mr. Schelhorse recently took a trip to Texas, and he returned home Saturday. As a reward for good behavior during his absence, he made Woodrow a present of a coveted sled.

Coasts On Hill

All Saturday afternoon Woodrow coasted on the hill near the home of Mrs. Emma Luke, with whom he had been living since the destruction of his father’s home by fire December 5. Sunday morning, he again took his new possession to the hill and coasted down the steep, icy slope.

Sunday afternoon his father called Mrs. Luke to say that he would be there later in the day to take Woodrow and her for a ride. She gave Woodrow permission to go out and play until his father arrived.

Less than 10 minutes before the father arrived to take the boy for the ride, Woodrow met his death. Mr. Schelhorse had just turned the corner of Main Street into West Sixth Street, when he saw a crowd collecting three blocks away.

Turning to Mrs. Mary Anderson, with whom he was riding, he said, “That’s my boy that has been hurt, I just feel it.”

Mrs. Anderson reassured him as best she could, but the first thing the father saw when he stopped the car before the house in which his son had been staying was the body of his boy lying in a pool of blood in the street.

Father Overcome

So overcome was the man that all he could say, when asked his name by police, was “Please cover him up.” He then walked into the house, searching for Mrs. Luke.

When Mr. Schelhorse reached the police station, after Casey had been arrested and taken there, he hesitated about signing the information that might send the young man to prison.

“ I didn’t see the accident,” he said. “Some of the people who saw the accident say the young man was speeding, if he was, he should be prosecuted, but if he wasn’t – and some of the witnesses say that he was not—he should not be prosecuted; because then no one was to blame.

Casey was held at the police station for several hours following the accident waiting for someone to sign his bond. He is 22 years old and told the police that he had driven a car for several years and that he did not believe that the accident could have been avoided.

“I saw the boy a moment before he hit my car,” he said. “He was traveling so fast at the time that I thought he had passed right underneath the car until I felt the jar, when he struck.

“The sled must have caught under the machine in some way so as to throw the boy against the frame of the car. Otherwise I think that he would have escaped.”

Boys Driven from Hill

Police drove all the boys from this hill Saturday after complaints from women in the neighborhood had come to them. They said that it was an annual practice to chase youngsters from the hill and that last year had spread cinders over the whole length of the street in an effort to discourage coasting. This is to be done again Monday.

Four sisters, one brother and his father survive Woodrow Schelhorse. His sisters are Ruth, 11 years old; Buella May 8, years old; Erma, 6 years old and Loraine Gertrude, 5 years old. His brother is Warren Dixie, 2 years old.

The sisters and the brother have been living with relatives in Sac County, Iowa, ever since the fire that destroyed their home. Woodrow remained in the city to continue in school.

The body was removed to the Westcott funeral parlors pending funeral arrangements.