From: carolyn(a)parlorcity.com
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: BALLER, STRAHM, BAUMGARDNER, GEHRING
Classification: Obituary
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ui.2ADI/2485
Message Board Post:
Evening News-Banner, Bluffton, Indiana, Saturday, October 17, 1931
Hurled from Bicycle When Hit by Auto
Rev. Edward Antle, Butler, Driver of Auto Exonerated by Officers
Chris Baller, 71, widower, well known Bluffton laborer, formerly a
Lancaster township, received fatal injured about 6:20 Friday night when a
bicycle he was riding towards Bluffton on state road 3 was struck at a
point about one-half mile south of the Bluffton corporation line by a
Model A Ford sedan owned and driven by the Rev. Edward Antle, 46, pastor
of the First M. E. church of Butler.
The injured man was rushed to the Wells County hospital in this city in an
ambulance and was pronounced dead a few minutes after he was carried into
the hospital.
Death was attributed to a fracture of the skull.
Sheriff Luster G. Bowman, who was notified immediately after the accident,
hurried to the scene with the ambulance driver, and made full
investigation. Coroner William Thoma also made an investigation as soon as
he was notified of Baller's death.
Both the sheriff and the coroner made statements to the effect that they
exonerated Rev, Antle of all blame, and viewed the accident as unavoidable
as far as he was concerned, as Baller carried no light and lights of two
machines driving south had prevented Rev. Antle seeing Baller until too
late to avoid hitting him.
Rev. Antle's Statement.
Rev. Antle explained that he was enroute home from St. Louis, Mo., where
he had assisted his brother, Rev. Joseph Antle, conduct special services
as the Fry Memorial M. E. church. He had been accompanied as far as
Montpelier by his brother-in-law, the Rev. J. R. Steele, pastor of the
Montpelier M. E. church, and after eating supper at the Steel home had
started to drive to his home in Butler. His statements to the coroner and
sheriff detailed the accident clearly.
"I was driving about 40 miles per hour slowing down and dimming my lights
when I met any machines." He stated.
"At a point approximately one-half mile south of the corporation line of
Bluffton I met two machines southbound. I was northbound. I dimmed for the
first machine and I think the first machine dimmed. I was blinded for an
instant by the lights and I tried to watch the edge of the road, I
suddenly saw a man on a bicycle directly in front of my right front fender
and the light and I struck him almost at the same instant.
"Later I learned the man was Chris Baller. He was thrown to the right
(east) side of the road. I stopped at once and went to the man.
"The first machine that I met went on down the road and did not stop. The
second machine that I was meeting stopped and a man came back to the man I
had struck.
"We went to the nearest farm house (Forrest Blocker's on the Kunkel farm)
and called the sheriff. After we had called the sheriff we went back to
the man I had struck, Blocker went with me. The other man said he had to
go on and we did not learn his name.
"The sheriff came with an ambulance, and before the ambulance arrived
three nurses came in a machine. They said Baller still had a pulse and he
was taken to the hospital."
Rev. Antle said that his dimmers were on when his machine struck Baller
and that there was no light on Baller's bicycle.
Some object struck the non-shatter glass of the windshield and made a dent
in it. There was no other damage visible about the automobile. It was
believed that the automobile hurled the bicycle into the air and that a
handle bar struck the windshield.
Injury to Back and Head.
Examination revealed a long deep gash in the back of Baller's head and the
skull was fractured. He showed no signs of consciousness after the fatal crash.
The three nurses had been taken to the accident scene in a machine from
the hospital by Chancy Miller and they were there within a few minutes
after word of the accident reached the hospital, which stands about
one-half mile distant. Rev. Antle remarked later that he had never before
seen such quick work.
Neither of the drivers of the southbound machines made any report of the
accident and their identities were not learned. It was not certain that
the first driver knew there had been an accident. The second driver did
not wait until the sheriff arrived.
Baller had been employed during the day in husking corn at he Edward
Schwartz farm, one-half mile south if Bluffton and one-half mile west of
state road 3. He was returning to Bluffton at the conclusion of his day on
the farm. He was best known as a painter.
Born in Wells County.
The accident victim was a lifelong resident of Wells County, a son of
Chris and Christina Strahm Baller, and was born May 20, 1860. He was
married to Miss Sarah Baumgardner, whose death occurred in 1916. No
children were born to their union.
Surviving are a sister, Mrs. Joel Gehring, Craigville, and three brothers,
Abraham and John Baller, Oregon, and Samuel Baller, residing in Kansas.
Two sisters and a brother are deceased.
Mr. Baller made his home in this city with Amos Herman, with whom he had
rooms at the latter's home.
The body was taken to the Jahn funeral home on West Market street and will
remain there until the time of the funeral.
Funeral services will be held at the Jahn funeral home at noon Sunday and
at the Christian Apostolic church east of Bluffton at 21:30 p.m. Sunday.
Burial will be in the church cemetery.
Obituaries courtesy of News-Banner Publications, published with permission.
From: carolyn(a)parlorcity.com