Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1916 — WOLCOTT POSTMASTER AND WIFE KILLED [ARTICLE]

WOLCOTT POSTMASTER AND WIFE KILLED

Robert Dobbins and Wife Killed When Automobile Goes Into Ditch ; Near Montmorenci. Robert Dobbins, postmaster at Wolcbtt, and his wife were almost instantly killed and their daughter, Vivian, 16 years old, and niece, Jeanette Dobbins, miraculously escaped with their lives when the automobile in which they were returning to their home from Lafayette Saturday night overturned in a ditch near Montmorenci. The victims’ necks were broken when they were caught beneath the edge of the car as it plunged to the bottom of the ten-foot embankment, it is thought. The yo jng ladies in the car were rescued from beneath it by Lafayette men in another machine who witnessed the tragedy. They were on the verge of hysterics from shock, but without a scratch. The party had gone to Lafayette early in the evening to attend a moving picture show, and 1 were opposite the farm of Mort Erwin on their return home when the machine turned turtle as the driver attempted to pass a wagon said to have been driven by E. Croll and G. Goldman, of Lafayette.

Mr. Dobbins repeatedly signalled to the men approaching along the narrow road with their wagon, but according to witnesses, the parties did not yield roadway, and the machine plunged over the embankment as he tried to pass. E. Reidlinger and Frank Hoffine, both of Lafayette, who were following the Dobbin’s car in another machine, dashed to the rescue, and lifted the heavy machine sufficently to free the young women pinioned under the rear seat. Mr. and Mrs. Dobbins crushed beneath the weight of the wrecked car are thought to have been dead before aid came, but Reidlinger drove to Montmorenci and raced back to the scene of the accident with Dr. A. M. Mayfield in the hope that their lives might be saved. The physician found the daughter of the dead pair and their niece without injuries, but they were suffering from nervous shock as a result of the fatal spill. Because of the absence from the city of Coroner Earl Van Reed, his deputy, Dr. J. W. Shaffer, investigated the acident, and the bodies of the victims were tak°n to Wolcott. Mr. Dobbins, who was about fifty years old, has been postmaster at Wolcott since the Wilson administration, and was quite well known to Rensselaer people.