GOTLIEB OYER
A Close Call
Gotlieb Oyer Comes Near Losing His Life
He Fall on a Belt
Between a threshing Machine and an Engine
How it Happened.
There came near being a fatal accident near this city on last Friday evening, and as it was, one of Waverly’s prominent citizens was rendered unconscious for three hours and barely escaped being instantly killed.
Mr. Gotleib Oyer was assisting his son-in-law, Joseph Gibson, in threshing his crop of wheat grown on the Emmitt farm on the hill just west of Waverly and at the time the accident occurred was feeding the threshing machine. A wagon loaded with grain was just about to leave the machine, when the tongue of the wagon struck a prop underneath the platform upon which Mr. Oyer was standing, and this threw him directly on the large belt which runs from the machine to the engine.
In an instance Mr. Oyer was carried rapidly toward the engine until he reached a point where the belts were crossed and he was thrown with great force to the ground. He was picked up unconscious by his comrades and Dr. Andre hastily summoned. After three hour’s hard work the doctor succeeded in bringing his patient around all right and he was removed to his home on Emmett Avenue in this city, where a few days’ rest will enable him to again attend to his usual duties.
Had the belts not been crossed, Mr. Oyer would no doubt have been carried on the belt from the threshing machine to the engine before the engine could have been stopped, which would have resulted fatally. As it was he was terribly shaken up and probably does not care for a repetition of the accident.
Waverly Democrat
1-29-1908
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