John Owens, abt. 35 years
Died Jan. 14, 1913
Niles Daily Star, Wednesday, January 15, 1913, page 1, col. 1-2, microfilm District Library
VICTIM OF ICE PLANER WAS UNKNOWN FLOATER
He was sent to Niles by a Chicago labor agency giving name of John Owens
BURIED BY COMPANY
No one saw the fatal accident and clogging of chain was first known of it.
The name of the man who was crushed to death in a planer at the Purakwa ice plant at Barron Lake yesterday was John Owens.
He is about thirty-five years old and was shipped to Niles from Chicago on Jan. 8 with other men engaged at a labor agency to cut ice for this firm.
Owens was assigned to a position at the foot of the ice run way upon which cakes of ice are carried from the lake and are forced through the planer before they are deposited in the ice house.
The planer knives are set to cut off the snow surface of the ice and as the ice is only about ten inches thick the knife was set low, leaving too small an opening for the body of a human being to pass through.
How the fatal accident happened can only be surmised as no one saw it, and no one knew that anything was wrong until the unusual tension on the chain apprised the engineer that it was clogged and he stopped the machinery at once.
The finding a moment later of Owens lifeless body which had been forced up against the planer knife was the first that was known that anyone was hurt.
The body was somewaht mangled, both thighs being broken, the breast being deeply gashed by the planer knife. He was crushed internally and that was the cause of death.
Death was instantaneous and Owens never had time to suffer fefore his terrible death.
How the man got into the planer no one knows.
His proper station was some 35 to 40 feet below the planer and if he went up to the planer it ws without authority and contrary to the duties assigned him.
Dr. Waterson was called from Niles but there was nothing for him to do.
Coroner Dunning was informed of the tragedy and he impanelled a jury who met this morning and rendered a verdict in accordance iwth the facts.
The body was brought to Skalla's morgue and will be buried at the expense of the Purakwa Ice Co., in Silver Brook cemetery, where a lot was purchased by the company.
This is the first fatality at the lake in all the years of ice cutting and is deeply regretted by Manager Kendricks and his men.
Nothing is known of the dead man's antecedents. He was probably a floater with no fixed habitation.