Obit: Opferkuch, John (1933? - 1957)

Contact: Stan

Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Opferkuch

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 02/14/1957

Opferkuch, John (1933? - 6 FEB 1957)

A Hannibal man was killed instantly as he was unloading logs here last Wednesday, Feb. 6^th, 1957.

John Opferkuch, 23, of Hannibal was pronounced dead by Dr. Philip Jorgenson of Thorp (Clark Co., Wis.) at 5:12 p.m. Wednesday of a crushed skull.

A log from a truck had struck him as he started to remove a log from a loaded truck owned by Ray Jaeger of Gilman.

Jaeger and Opferkuch were hauling logs to the side track of the Soo Line next to the Thorp Courier office.

Mr. Jaeger was in the cab of the truck with bakes applied while John Opferkuch evidently was attempting to remove a log from the loaded truck to place under the back wheels.  Hearing no word from Opferkuch, Jaeger went to the back of the truck and found the slain man lying on the ground beside three logs which had rolled from the truck of which one, an eight-foot pulpwood, had apparently struck him.

The lower part of his body was partially over the abutment of the sidetrack, apparently he having slipped and then a log falling on his head, killing him instantly.

The tie bind which secured the logs piled above the stakes on the truck had been un done by Opferkuch before his apparent slip to the ground.

The truck, owned by Opferkuch, had previously been unloaded with the Jaeger truck pulling up to unload.

Sheriff Ray Kutsche and Coroner Robert Lulloff of Clark County investigated the accident Wednesday evening about 8 o’clock, questioning Ray Jaeger, Dr. Philip Jorgenson and Robert Elkins, editor of the Thorp Courier, who arrived immediately on the scene following the accident.

There was no inquest.

The logs were being transferred from the truck to a Soo Line railroad car to be shipped to Iron Mountain, Mich., for making charcoal.