Conrad - William
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 19 July 1901
The correspondent, in company with a hack load of K. of P.’s, attended the funeral of William Conrad Sunday morning, and had it not been for the occasion, the drive would have been a most enjoyable one. The sudden change from hot to almost cold, made it a pleasant and, under different circumstances, a most desirable one. Arriving at the home at the appointed hour, we found a vast crowd already there. His tragic and lamentable death had created the sympathy of the entire community and many were the sympathetic expressions we heard for his aged and widowed mother, his brothers and sisters, but especially his mother, as he was to her not only a son, but a protector in her declining years. While we knew him all his life, we knew but little of him as a man, yet we heard nothing as to his character but the highest commendation and words of praise as to his life. He was a member of the K. of P. lodge at Colfax, and that lodge had charge of the funeral services at the grave after short religious services at the home by Rev. Claypool. The interment was at the Union Cemetery, one and one half miles northwest of the home, and the crowd was such that there was not room for the procession between the two places. One hundred Knights were in line and three hundred carriages and buggies—actual county. In strolling through this cemetery we found many old and familiar names of persons we were once familiar with, but gone so long we had almost forgotten them. We found on a beautiful little monument this inscription: “Abraham Bowers and his son Abner dug the first grave here Sept. 20, 1831.” We could but conclude as we viewed the ground that their selection was a most fitting one. A beautiful mound of some four acres on the open prairie, under laid with gravel makes it a desirable burial place. Surrounded by beautiful farm homes, friends have kindly cared for this city of the dead all these years and now all enclosed with a good iron fence, the lots and graves denoting the best of care, it is estimated that over 2,000 persons have been buried there in these seventy years. -s
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 12 July 1901
A sickening tragedy occurred Friday afternoon in Sugar Creek Township, William Conrad losing his life by an explosion of dynamite. No one witnessed the accident and the dead body was found two hours after the tragedy by his mother.
William Conrad was a single man, twenty eight years old, and lived with his widowed mother, Mrs. Joseph Conrad, not far from Colfax in this county. Friday Mrs. Conrad drove to Clark’s Hill and the young man desiring to blow out a stump in the field, went to Colfax and purchased some dynamite. He returned home and after dinner remarked to the hired man who was picking cherries, that he intended to go out and blow up the stump. He was never seen alive again.
A short time after the cherry picker heard a loud explosion behind the barn and supposed that the stump had been blown up. Two hours later Mrs. Conrad returned from Clark’s Hill and drove into the barn lot, some little distance from the house. Her horror and agony can be imagined when unsuspectingly she drove her horse up to the spot where lay the frightfully mangled body of her son. From the surroundings a tolerably clear idea of how the accident occurred can be obtained. The dead body was lying with a new pitchfork across it and it is more than probable that the victim was forcing the cap into the dynamite with a prong of the fork when the stuff exploded. His left arm was blown off, his left side torn off and his bowels scattered about the ground. Parts of the body were blown a distance of forty feet and were spattered on the barn and corn crib nearby. When Mrs. Conrad arrived hogs had just begun to feed upon the body and would soon have added horror to the tragedy. The distracted woman drove them off and gave the alarm and then was prostrated. Her condition is regarded as quite serious.
Coroner Dennis visited the scene last Saturday and found the dynamite was exploded in a different manner from that advanced above. They seem to think that he started around the corn crib carrying the fork in one had and the dynamite in the other, that the fork struck the side of the crib, flew around and struck the dynamite, which was being sensitive on account of the heat, exploded. However, the real facts will never be known.
M. B. Waugh, who knew Mr. Conrad well, speaks of him in the highest terms as a most excellent young man.