DeKalb County ALGENWEB
The Fort Payne Journal
Fort Payne, Alabama
Wednesday, May 15, 1895
Page 1

HORRIBLE ACCIDENT.

A Fourteen-Year-Old Boy Killed at the Basket Factory.

He Was in the Act of Putting on a Belt and Becoming Tangled Therein Was Thrashed to Death.

On last Friday morning about 8 o'clock Willie Roberts, aged 14, met a sad death at the Basket Factory. He was assisting some of the older hands in mending a broken belt. After the belt was mended he attempted to plane it in position and by some unfortunate accident became entangled therein and was carried twice around the main shaft, his body and legs striking the tip of the building each time. He was eventually thrown loose and hurled to the floor, some ten or twelve feet distance, where he was picked up a bruised and bleeding mass. He was conveyed home and several physicians were called in and it was found that his right arm was almost torn from his body, his legs were broken in several places and his back was broken, besides he was internally injured. All that medical aid could perform was done for him, but his wounds were too serious and too numerous and at 11 o'clock, three hours after the terrible accident, his life went out.

His remains were laid to rest at the old cemetery Saturday. Almost the whole of the Basket Factory attended his funeral, not only his fellow laborers but the managers. His associates say he was a good boy and a splendid little worker.

The accident is deeply deplored and by no one more than the managers of the factory.