| Man Is Killed By Prong of A Falling Tree
Philip Crummy fatally Wounded While Logging Timber Tear Viola
Struck by Broken Branch of Dead Tree
Philip Crummy of Gilchrist, cutting timber with his partner,
Walter Stone, on the Bellinger land a couple miles southeast of Viola,
was fatally wounded by a falling tree last Thursday; dying that night at 8 o'clock.
In felling a large oak tree of its outspreading limbs, struck and
swept off the top of a smaller dead tree standing beside it. The broken
portion, 18 feet long and of a diameter of four inches at its base,
toppled over and fell top downward. Close to its base was a sharp
pointed prong or snag. Crummy, who was standing beside the dead tree and
within four or five feet of the falling oak, was struck by the
descending tree top, the prong of which hit him fairly on top of his
head and crushed his skull.
Dog Stands Over His Master.
After the noise from the crashing and splintering of branches
ceased, for the oak, 60 feet in height plowed through other standing
trees and stripped them of limbs in its descent, Stone saw his partner
lying on the ground face upward. Crummy's dog peering anxiously into his master face.
The stricken man was senseless for several minutes. Stone call
Andrew Johnson, a teamster who was loading logs a few hundred feed
distant in the timber. The latter left his team unhitched and hurried to
the spot. Stone stayed with Crummy while Johnson went to the home of
Fred McLaughlin less than a half a mile away, where he phoned to Viola
for Dr. McClanahan. Mr. McLaughlin came for the wounded man in an
automobile, Johnson with him.
In the interval Crummy revived and walked to the tree which he had
helped to cut down a short time before. He was seated on the tree trunk
with is face between his hands when McLaughlin and Johnson arrived.
"How did this happen?" he asked, but seemingly had a dull
conception of it when told.
Skull is Crushed.
Crummy was placed in the machine, which was brought to the scene
over a rough roadway through an adjoining cornfield. On the road to
Viola Dr. McClanahan was met. After a hasty examination of the sufferer
he was taken to his home at Gilchrist. A more extended examination
showed the skull to be crushed. Crummy lingered until 8 o'clock Thursday night.
Dr. A. N. Mackey, the coroner, held an inquest that night. The
body was viewed by the jurors at the home, the testimony being taken at
the residence of Walter Stone. The witnesses examined were Stone,
Johnson and Dr. McClanahan. The jury returned a verdict of death from
cerebral hemorrhage of the brain due to a blow from a falling tree.
Stone related that after notching and sawing the oak tree he took
his station four feet to the west of it while it was falling, his
partner standing to the east of it and beside a dead tree, the top of
which was knocked off by a projecting branch of the oak and fell on Crummy.
Coroner Visits Scene.
Friday Dr. Mackey and Stone visited the scene to get a better
idea of the nature of the accident. In looking carefully over the fallen
tree top which, by the way, was bare of limbs with the exception of a
prong, they found that the prong had blood spots on it which Stone in
his excitement had not noticed before. This tapering stick was about 18
feet long and the snag that caused Crummy's death was a couple feed from
the butt of it. The dead tree itself which was of a diameter of less
than a foot at its base, was cut down for measurement. It measured 36
feet to the place where the top had been broken off by the falling oak.
Crummy and Stone, both residents of Gilchrist, had a contract for
logging 80 acres of land belonging to Mrs. Martha Bellinger, who own
cultivated land in the same vicinity, the logs being converted into
railroad ties.
Accident Unnerves Partner.
It was the first serious accident followed by death that Stone
had ever witnessed and he was so upset by it that he was on the verge of
collapse after the inquest was concluded.
The deceased was 32 years old and born in Preemption. He had lived four
years in Gilchrist. He is survived by his widow and three sons the
eldest 11 and the youngest two years old. His mother is living but his
father is dead. The funeral was held Friday.
(Aledo Times Record, Thursday, November 3, 1921, p. 3) |
