Posts Tagged ‘Wakefield’

25
May

Thrilling Accident of Frightened Team

   Posted by: admin    in Accident, Animals, People

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 25, 1904

Thrillling (sic) Accident of Frightened Team

Horses of Oakdale Dairy Cut a Swath on the River Road North of Town

Broken Wagon Tongue Cause

Narrow Escape From Death for Mr. and Mrs. Schoonmaker and Infant.

Mr. and Mrs. O.F. Schoonmaker of Clarion, visiting at the Miller home in this city, and the Miller baby, very narrowly escaped death Sunday morning in a collision with a runaway team on the river road north of the city.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Schoonmaker had planned a picnic dinner in the woods along the river north of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Schoonmaker with the Miller baby were ahead and had reached what is is known as the Narrows road north of the Haviland place, where the road is only wide enough for some distance for a single team, with no room for passing when they were horrified to see a runaway team and wagon approaching. The team was mad with fright and as they were hemmed in on one side by the bluff and on the other by the river bank, there was no way of avoiding the crash and no time to get out of the vehicle. With no decrease in their mad speed the runaway crashed into the rig occupied by the three. Mrs. Schoonmaker and the child were thrown over the dash board among the struggling and fright-crazed animals, two of which had been thrown by the violence of the contact, and were only rescued with difficulty by other picnickers who were on the same road, but fortunate enough to find a way of escape. Mrs. Schoonmaker was unconscious when picked up but miraculously was not seriously hurt, sustaining only a few bruises. The baby, aside from a scratch on its fact (sic – should be face) escaped injury and was picked up badly frightened and crying lustily by the side of the road where it had rolled from under the plunging horses.

The runaway horses, which belonged to the Oakdale dairy, and were bringing a load of milk into the city, were held by the party until claimed by their driver. The rig which had been occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Schoonmaker and  the baby was straightened out, the damage repaired and they returned to the city. All things considered, the accident was a fortunate one, in that the results were no more serious.

Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Wakefield, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Craig and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dietz, who had also planned a day in the woods were on the same road a little way ahead of Mr. and Mrs. Schoonmaker, but seeing the approaching runaway barely got out of their path at a point where the road widened a trifle, and the team passed them, just grazing the wheels of their vehicle. Hearing the crash of the collision behind them, they rushed to the rescue of their less fortunate followers and succeeded in untangling the wreck.

The runaway of the dairy team was caused by the breaking of the wagon tongue as they were coming down the hill. The driver was unharmed.

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31
Mar

To Be Finished Within Month

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The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 31, 1903

To Be Finished Within Month

Fort Dodge’s Carnegie Library is Very Nearly Completed

Progress is Satisfactory.

E.C. Wakefield, superintendent of Construction, is Looking foward to Completion.

The new Carnegie library which has been in process of construction during the past two years, and which was to have been completed many months ago, will be ready for the occupancy of books in a month. Such is the opinion of E.C. Wakefield, who for a time had charge of its construction under the Northern Building Company which recently came to a disastrous end, and who is superintending its completion. Wakefield says that the marble and ornamental plaster work will be completed this week and that most of the library fixtures, such as the loop stacks – metal shelves for holding the books – are on hand and are ready for setting up.

Many causes have contributed to the delay in completion. The material was ordered when there was a great demand for all building material so that the company had to wait several months for the steel. A strike among the stone cutters also caused considerable delay and lastly the failure of the Northern Building company has tended to make the building as slow in completion as the Chicago postoffice.

Now that the material is all on hand and an energetic library committee shoving the work thru, the new Carnegie Library will soon be in a condition for patrons to admire its architectural beauty.

(Editor’s note: I’ll have to go back and do some research about the Northern Building Company, to find out why it “came to a disastrous end.”)

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