. . . And the Corn Husker Taketh Away

A few things jar my modern sensibilities as I read these early-20th-century newspapers — the casual, blatant racism; the number of people killed by railroad trains; and the frequency with which people lost body parts, especially fingers, hands and arms. That last one is today's topic.

Many of those body parts were lost on farms to a machine called a corn husker, also called a husker-shredder, which I believe looked like this.

Just a sampling of injuries from the Ainsworth-Deep River-Hobart area:

• In November of 1900, Jude Blachly got the index finger of his left hand caught in a corn husker. A prominent Hobart physician, Dr. Mackey, treated the wound but ended up having to amputate the finger at the first joint.
• In April of 1901, Edward Maybaum lost a thumb to a corn husker.
• In November of 1901, 19-year-old William Witt's arm was so badly crushed in a corn husker that it had to be amputated.
• In November of 1903, Schuyler Hardesty's hand was mangled in a corn husker; the thumb and first two fingers had to be amputated at the hand.
• Also in November 1903, John Witt lost the ends of two fingers.

Those last two incidents appeared in an article entitled, "Corn Husker Did It." People were well aware of the dangers of that machine. In November 1901 — in the wake of President McKinley's assassination by a self-proclaimed anarchist — the Gazette said, "An Indiana paper suggests a worthy position for anarchists by giving them a job feeding a corn husker."

The corn husker was not the only culprit. For example, in June 1902, Frank Maybaum lost a finger to a machine in the East Tolleston furniture factory where he worked; three months later a young man pressing grapes had three fingers on his right hand mangled, and they had to be amputated.


Sources:
♦ "Corn Husker Did It." Hobart Gazette 6 Nov. 1903.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 5 Apr. 1901.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 15 Nov. 1901.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 19 Sept. 1902.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 9 Nov. 1900.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 June 1902.