6 Oct 1922--DEATH FROM SIMPLE AUTO ACCIDENT --A peculiar accident occurred Sunday morning which cost Bob Hooper his life. Hooper owned a Chevrolet car. He did not run it, but was accustomed to get some boy to drive it for him. One of these was Millard Kirtley. Yesterday morning Hooper wanted to go to visit a brother who lives west of Jacksonville, and got Kirtley to go with him. They left here about 9:30 and drove to the brother’s house but when they got there the family was not at home. Hooper was reared in that neighborhood and knew everybody, so he proposed that they go to some neighbor’s house, saying that they might find his brother and family. On the way the car ran out of water. They stopped at the house to replenish, but there were no buttons on the chair so the water could not be drawn. Hooper told the boy that there was a creek near there and they could drive down to it. Millard says he told Hooper there was no use driving, that he would take a bucket and go get the water. Hooper said, “There’s no need of that; there is a good road and we can drive all right.” The road, Millard says, was fairly good, but it was a slight incline, and rocky. They came to a place where the ground was soft and Millard had his head out of the side of the car driving carefully and watching the road. All at once he heard a crash of glass. He said he had not heard Hooper open the car door and did not know he had moved until he heard the crash. Hooper evidently started to get out and probably a jolt of the car caused him to be thrown against the wind shield. When Millard heard the crash and turned to see what was the matter, he found Hooper on the ground holding his hand on his neck. The wound was bleeding freely and Millard did what he could to render first aid by taking his own handkerchief, placing it on the cut, and binding it there with Hooper’s handkerchief. They then started together to get help. Hooper was able to walk and even climbed a fence. After they had gone a short way down the road, Hooper began to fail in strength, as his neck was bleeding profusely. In a few minutes he told Millard he was getting blind and could go no further. Millard, badly scared, left and ran on for help. He soon met a man and told him to come with him, that there was a man down the road who had been hurt and was probably dying. The man refused, saying, “No, you are not going to get me mixed up in a thing like that.” After vainly pleading with the man, Millard again started on and soon met several men in a car. To these he appealed for help and the men went with him. As they passed the first man Millard had met he got on the running board of the car and went along. When they reached Hooper, the cautious man, who had refused help, found it was his own brother to whom he had refused aid. Hooper was still alive but unconscious. He was taken to the home of Wylie White nearby, and died just as the front porch was reached . The cut in the neck was a small place, but the glass had severed an artery, causing the quick death --Moberly Democrat. (Transcription of the Old Higbee News by Kathy Bowlin)
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 12:26:26 +0000
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