Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 136, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1910 — MONON BRAKEMAN HAS BOTH LEGS CRUSHED. [ARTICLE]

MONON BRAKEMAN HAS BOTH LEGS CRUSHED.

Riding on Rear of Engine, Otto Hemphill is Caught Against Broken Car And Will Probably At about 1 o’clock this Wednesday morning, Otto Hemphill, of Lafayette, head brakeman on freight train No. 72 was probably fatally injured near the stockyards in Rensselaer. ' Some switching was being done and the engine was running down the main track. Hemphill was sitting on the rear of the tender on the board that extends across the rear. He did not know the .car was on the track and there was no light attached to it. The car was a disabled one, the drawhar being broken arid thus when the tender struck the car, Hemphill’s legs were crushed between the tender and the extension platform on the car. Other trainmen, including Oscar Hemphill, a brother of Otto, who was a brakeman on No. 91, which was passing No. 72 here, carried Otto to the station and the local surgeon of the road was summoned. A train was made up and the unfortunate man was taken to the hospital at Lafayette. He was so weak when the hospital was reached that the hospital surgeon considered it certain death to undertake the amputation of the legs, and he expressed the opinion that death was certain to ensue any way. Hemphill was thoroughly conscious when being taken to the hospital and asked if his life could be saved. He' has a wife and six children. Later— An effort was made to amputate Hemphill’s limbs, but he died on the operating table.