Individual Details

Death

BOY KILLED TUESDAY

Carl Schatz, Five Year Old Boy, Killed East of Town, While Returning From School.

A most distressing accident occurred In the vicinity of the Lovell township school. No. 5, on the Cascade-Monticello road, last Tuesday afternoon at four o'clock, when Carl Schatz, Jr., the five year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Schatz, was killed by an automobile belonging to a construction company, which is engaged in the grading of the primary highway between Monticello and Cascade, and which was driven by Andrew Leesekamp of Anamosa.
It seems that the little boy had been dismissed from school with the other pupils and had walked a short distance along the road towards his home. He had forgotten his dinner pail and ran back to get it. As he approached the schoolhouse, he met the automobile driven by Leesekamp a few rods from the schoolhouse. The boy was walking in the middle of the road and turned to the right side of the road. The driver of the automobile was going at such a speed that it was impossible for him to stop and avoid hitting the boy. The automobile hit the boy on the right hand side of the road. The base of the boy's skull was fractured, which produced hemorrhages from his ears.
The boy's father, Carl Schatz, was a quarter of a mile down the road at the time of the accident. He immediately reached his son and when picked up the little boy gasped several times and then passed away. He was brought into Monticello and examined by Dr. C. G. Thomas, who determined that he was dead. Persons who have examined the road at the place where the accident occurred, state that the automobile which hit the boy slid a distance of twenty or thirty feet before it was able to stop. At least the marks of the wheels in the roadway can be traced that distance.
The little boy had been going to school about six months. He was a bright, active little fellow, and his sudden and untimely death has prostrated his parents, as he is their only child. The automobile which was driven by Mr. Leesekamp went into the ditch, showing that he made a determined effort to avoid hitting the boy.

The funeral of the little Schatz boy who was killed by an automobile as noted in The Express, last week, was very largely attended, last Saturday The services were conducted by Rev S. Ide, the pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran church. Burial was made In Oakwood cemetery.


July 19, 1923 Monticello Express
The legislature at its last session passed a bill allowing Mr. and Mrs. Carl Schatz damages in the sum of $----- death of their six year old son who, it will be recalled, was killed on the Military road east of Monticello, in October, 1921, by an automobile driven by an employee of the highway commission. Immediately following the accident, the testimony of all of the witnesses to the accident, which included a considerable number of school children, was taken and preserved at the coroner's inquest. This testimony clearly demonstrated the negligence of the driver of the automobile, and was the basis of the action by the legislature. It was legally determined that the county was not liable for the act, and that the only recourse was by an act of legislature. Both the house and senate passed the relief bill, by overwhelming majorities, and it was promptly signed by the governor; No amount of money can compensate Mr. and Mrs. Schatz for the loss of their little boy, but it is a good omen, when the legislature, having the dispensing of the funds of the state, recognizes the justlce of making some amends in the way of compensation for the acts of a negligent and incompetent employee of the state.