Killed by a Corn Shredder

Among the 1910 Ainsworth deaths, the most horrifying has to be that of Herbert Riddle.

He was a farm laborer, 24 years old. In June 1910 he hired on with Jerome Chester, who had also employed him the previous year and considered him a good worker. By the first full week of December, the corn harvest was nearing its end. Herbert was making plans with a friend to head out West on Friday of that week.

But he still had a few days of work. So on Monday afternoon he was busily feeding corn stalks into a shredding machine, and that's when it happened. His left arm got caught and pulled into the machinery, which cut it to pieces as far as the elbow, and shredded the flesh and muscle almost to the shoulder.

Someone called Drs. R.C. and Dwight Mackey (father and son) in Hobart with a message along the lines of: "For God's sake, get here as fast as you can." They found their patient in critical condition, unconscious and convulsing. They sent for Dr. Bulhand to assist, and then waited, perhaps hoping that Herbert's condition would stabilize. After about an hour, they proceeded to amputate the arm just below the shoulder.

Herbert died the next day, without ever regaining consciousness.

Thus the Chester family found themselves in charge of the remains of a man about whom they did not know much. They believed him to be unmarried, with a widowed mother living in West Portal, New Jersey. They set about trying to track down his mother, to break the news and find out what she wanted done with her son's body. It was not until late Wednesday night that they got a call back. It turned out that Herbert had a wife as well as both parents still living, and a West Portal undertaker would be here by Friday to convey the body home.

And so the coffin remained in the Chester house. The cold weather was a help, I suppose, but it must have been a very uncomfortable few days for every member of that crowded household. By Saturday, the undertaker had arrived and shipped the coffin eastward on the Grand Trunk Railroad. Herbert was buried at home in New Jersey the following Tuesday.

A coroner's inquest rendered a verdict of "accident — shock received from getting arm taken off in corn shredder." The Gazette commented, "The accident is very lamentable and one the eye-witnesses will never forget." Which is a reminder that in all of these farm-machinery accidents, the injured person was not the only victim.

Sources:
♦ "Man Fatally Injured." Hobart Gazette 9 Dec. 1910.
♦ "Remains Shipped East." Hobart Gazette 16 Dec. 1910.