Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Horrible Accident

A young man named Samuel Bowen, engaged as engineer and beer-runner at Gregg & Co.’s distillery, was instantly killed yesterday morning between one and two o’clock, his body being literally cut in two between a couple of cog wheels.  The accident occurred in what is called the beer cellar.  The unfortunate young man had only been a short time “on watch,” and went into the cellar to give some directions to the men working there.  The place was dark, but being intimately acquainted with the position of the machinery, he took no light with him.  It is supposed that in passing, the skirt of his coat caught in the wheels drawing him in their terrible embrace, and cutting him in two diagonally, from a little above the hips, through the breast.  He gave a few heart-piercing shrieks, but his death was almost instantaneous.  His right leg and one arm were shockingly mutilated. – Peoria Transcript, April 1.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

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