Auto Accident Kills Young Couple: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Automobiles”

Tragic Accident Kills Phyllis Ott and Husband

Phyllis Ott Walters: 1919-1943 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)

 

While researching my grandaunt Ethel Macbeth Ott for the previous post, I found more records relating to her two daughters. I immediately noted that Ethel’s younger daughter, Phyllis, died when she was only 23 years old. What could have happened? Then I discovered a news article in an old family scrapbook that explained how a car accident on a February afternoon eighty-one years ago ended not just Phyllis’ life, but the lives of two others.

Start of long Mankato Free Press article clipped and saved by my great-aunt Annie Schostag

Phyllis Ethel Ott was born April 14, 1919 to George Henry Ott and Ethel Macbeth Ott. She grew up in the Mankato area of Minnesota, where she met her husband Ralph Walters. Ralph grew up on a farm near Waseca, Minnesota. Ralph and Phyllis married June 27, 1937; he was 22, and Phyllis was 18 years old.

Ralph worked on road construction through a WPA program, and also did farm work. The couple moved frequently during the early years of their marriage, as can be seen on Ralph’s WWII draft card, which had three separate addresses listed.

 

Their son, Monte Walters, was born October 17, 1939. Sadly, little Monte died just two months later on December 31, 1939. 

On February 21, 1943, life was probably looking up for Ralph and Phyllis. Ralph had a steady income at last as he was working at Kato Engineering, the same firm employing his father-in-law. They were living on Front Street in Mankato. They were young—28 and 23—and had their lives ahead of them.

Ralph and Phyllis were returning from a visit to Ralph’s parents —the Walters had moved to North Branch, Minnesota, about 55 miles north of the Twin Cities. The couple had spent four days with Ralph’s parents and were headed home on Highway 169 that Sunday afternoon. At about 4:30 p.m., Ralph lost control of his car, possibly when the wheels struck a “bump” on the pavement. The car plowed into the side of a cattle truck seven miles north of LeSueur, Minnesota. According to the news article, the car was nearly demolished by the impact. Ralph died at the scene—the driver’s side of the car would have sustained the most damage.

Phyllis survived the crash, but she suffered a skull fracture and internal injuries. She was taken to a hospital in Shakopee, a town nearly thirty miles north of the crash. My aunt, the scrapbook compiler, wrote on the article that Phyllis “died a few days later”. Death records show she died February 23.

Tragically, Alfred Albrecht, an undertaker from Shakopee who was called to the crash scene, suffered a heart attack at home after helping to extract Ralph’s body from the wreckage and then carrying Phyllis into the office of the closest doctor. Albrecht died, so was the third death resulting from this single auto accident.

Fortunately, the driver and passengers in the cattle truck received minimal injuries.

This tragic accident shows how important safety improvements like seat belts, antilock brakes, and improved auto construction have helped to prevent similar deaths. In addition, Highway 169, which I have driven dozens of times, is now a divided highway, providing even more safety if a car loses control.

Phyllis and Ralph are buried in Tivoli Cemetery in Eagle Lake, Minnesota, near the graves of Phyllis’ parents.

Sources:

Mankato Free Press article from Annie Schostag’s scrapbook. Feb. 1943. “Auto – Truck Crash Fatal to ‘Katoan”.

Findagrave.com entry for Ralph and Phyllis Walters. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13148035/ralph-a-walters?_gl=1*dlv1kd*_gcl_aw

Minneapolis Daily Times article. Feb. 22, 1943. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/141726907/car-accident-kills-ralph-and-phyllis/?xid=637&_gl=1*vhk1ln*_gcl_aw*

Ralph Walters WWII draft card. Accessed via Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/16771621:2238?ssrc=pt&tid=46986934&pid=25560975052

Twenty Years of Shifting Gears : 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Earning a Living”

George Ott Changes Careers with the Times

George Henry Ott: 1866-1977 (Maternal Grand-Aunt’s Husband)
Ethel Mary Macbeth Ott: 1896-1951 (Maternal Grand-Aunt)

 

Articles offering career advice often refer to the current job market as a “gig economy”, where people shift from one employer to another, using their skill sets to tackle various projects. The articles often assert that workers must be nimble, adapting as employers’ needs change, and that this pattern of career change is new. They claim that in the past, people worked for a single employer for their entire working lifetimes, remaining in the same or similar jobs. But is this view of the past true? A look at the work history of my grand-uncle by marriage, George Ott, shows he was just as nimble as any gig worker today. He cycled through three or four very different types of jobs in a twenty-year period. His goal—and that of his wife Ethel-- was to provide for the family.

Geoge Henry Ott was born December 17, 1886 in Mankato, Minnesota. He grew up on his father Geoge’s farm, and his first jobs were as a farm laborer before he went into farming for himself. He married Ethel Macbeth on May 22, 1914 when he was 27 and Ethel was 18.

By the 1920 census, George and Ethel were farming on rented property in LeRay Township near Eagle Lake, Minnesota. They had two little girls, Nona and Phyllis. By 1930, George had bought a farm near Kasota in neighboring LeSeuer County, Minnesota. He probably felt more assured of his ability to provide for his little family, but of course the Great Depression had just begun, cratering farm prices. George probably had a mortgage on his farm, and at some point he must have had to sell up and move to nearby Mankato to seek employment.

By the 1940 census, he was working as a laborer on highway construction. He appears in a Mankato city directory in 1941 as a worker for Guaranteed Gravel and Sand Co. and he also lists the company on his 1941 draft card. I suspect this is the same job—a gravel company would be involved in road construction.  

The 1950 census took me by surprise. George had changed jobs, to one I’d never heard mentioned before. Under “Occupation”, the census taker wrote: “winds electric motors”. The industry was listed as “Engineer Co.” I found a slightly different description of George’s new job in the 1948 Mankato City Directory, which listed George as an “armature winder” for Kato Engineering.

I did some research, discovering on a website cited below that an armature winder is:

“an artisan responsible for the repair, reconditioning, or construction of wire armature coils for transformers, electric motors and generators. Although strictly an electrical trade, armature winding is generally classified as electrical fitting because it involves additional mechanical elements. Armature winding typically involves two facets: construction and repair. The construction or manufacturing armature winder engages in the winding of new armatures while a repair winder concentrates on fault finding, repairing, or refurbishing existing parts. Both disciplines can involve a lot of precise, repetitive work….”

I further discovered that Kato Engineering was founded in 1926, and manufactures generators, so George was preparing armature coils for generators. George was in his sixties when he worked for Kato Engineering. While the work may have been less physically harsh than road construction, it obviously required extreme care and control.

Interestingly, my Great-Aunt Ethel was also employed in 1948. The city directory states she was working as a maid at Immanuel Hospital in Mankato. She no longer held a job by the date of the 1950 census, but I am sure she was proud to have contributed to earning a living for her family.

Ethel Macbeth Ott died November 2, 1951 at only 55 years of age. George Ott died June 18, 1977 at age ninety.

As a side note, I returned to my entries on Ethel and George this winter after I was contacted by a gentleman who was researching the Eagle Lake Cemetery where George and Ethel are buried. He had discovered the graves of three additional children that weren’t listed in any Ancestry trees, and thought I might like to know about them and add them to my tree. The three little boys, George Ethelbert (1917), Laren George (1920), and Daryl (1925), appear to have been stillborn or died shortly after birth. I am so grateful for the efforts of volunteers like that gentleman. The babies are now part of my family tree, and I have included photos of their headstones on Ancestry. No one should be forgotten.

  

Sources:

What does an Armature Winder do? Mastering the Craft of Electrical Motor Repair, by Paul Scott. https://www.practicaladultinsights.com/what-does-an-armature-winder-do.htm

Findagrave website. Photo by Wells. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13148024/george-henry-ott?_

Mankato City Directory 1948, and World War II Draft Card accessed via Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005252612_04494?pId=33961652

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/13335598?pId=801934835