Obit: Hart, Beryl E. (1912? - 1956)

Contact: Stan

Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Hart, Ehlert

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 10/04/1956

Hart, Beryl E. (1912? - 1 OCT 1956)

Death hid in the fog for Mr. and Mrs. Beryl E. Hart, route 2, Thorp (Clark Co., Wis.), who were killed instantly at 9:05 p.m. Monday when their car smashed into the side of a freight train two miles south of Fairchild.  Hart was 44 and his wife 39, and lived on a farm 6 miles north and 1 ½ miles west of Thorp.  He was the son-in-law of Art Ehlert, Sr.

Their 10-year-old son, Lee, received minor injuries in the accident and ran a mile through the fog to a farm house to call for help.  Six other children survive.  The accident happened in Jackson County and the deaths were the fourth and fifth in Jackson County traffic this year.  It was investigated by Coroner Sid Jensen, Hixton, Undersheriff Ed Prusa, and Traffic Officer Guy Hobart.

The boy stayed with Fairchild Policeman  Art Baures until an aunt and uncle from Bellinger called for him.

He told Baures that the fog was thick while they went down the steep hill that lies to the north of the railroad tracks.  He said his father was driving and that he saw the train an instant before the collision, but too late.

"Then everything flew all over," the boy told Baures.  Afterward he tried to get out a window and couldn’t, so he notice a door open slightly and managed to crawl out.  He found his father’s body but couldn’t find his mother, he told Baures.  When he couldn’t revive his father, he didn’t know what to do, he said.  "He said he felt like crawling into the back seat and covering up his head," Baures said.

Then the boy remembered he had seen a light up the road and he stuck out for the farm of Freeman Schumaker to call for help.

Jensen said he found Mrs. Hart’s body against the outside of the left side of the car near the driver’s wheel.  Her husband body lay from 65 to 75 feet to the north of the demolished 1949 sedan.  Both died instantly, Jensen said.  Both bodies were mutilated in the accident.

Jensen said the trio had apparently been on a raccoon hunting expedition.  The Harts had stopped moments earlier at the Fairchild home of George Richards to invite him to accompany them.  Richards, who was not feeling well, turned down their invitation.  Hunting licenses found on the bodies had been purchased earlier the same day in Bellinger.

A few moments later the car slammed into Omaha Line Freight No. 479 at a town road crossing south of Fairchild.  Jensen said the car struck about three-quarters of the way back on a 63 car freight bound for Eau Claire, and severed an air hose, causing the train to stop.

Trainmen walked back along the cars and discovered the smashed wreckage of the car.  They then uncouple the engine and took it two miles into Fairchild to report the tragedy.

Meanwhile, little Lee had wandered away from the scene.  "The little boy must have been thrown out of the car," Jensen declasre.  "When he came to he must have run or walked through the fog about a mile or better to a farmhouse that had a little light in the barnyard.  I guess the little fellow could hardly talk but he finally let them know there had been an accident.  "Two dogs that had been riding in the back seat with Lee have not bee accounted for, Jensen said.

In addition to Lee, the dead couple is survived by two children staying with an aunt at Medford, Berdine, 16, and Harold, 14, and four sons in the armed services.

The bodies were taken to the Jensen Funeral Home at Hixton while Coroner Jensen made efforts to contact the sons in the service through the Defense Department at Washington, D.C.