County
Fair
August
30th, 1912
By Joe Schipani
By Joe Schipani
One of the best things about
summer is the county fair. The livestock, the food, the games… but it is the
rides that really attract the children.
The fair is usually the last big
event before going back to school. For one thirteen-year-old
boy named Chester Betts, this was the year his dreams of becoming an Aeronaut
were coming true. Almost a man, he spent most of his summer training for this
day, by practicing rope tying and building up his strength to hold the balloon.
On this beautiful Friday
afternoon, after the balloon filled with gas, Chester started untying the
ropes. He got the last one free and the balloon ascended into the air, but his
foot was caught in the rope and he sailed away with the balloon.
Professor Abner Amedill was
inside the balloon manning it. He heard the boy’s cries for help and tried to
bring the balloon back to the ground.
The balloon was around two
thousand feet above the ground when Chester
lost his hold and started falling.
The boy fell onto the roof of a
barn on East Court Street, known as the Stewart Estate. The boy’s body busted a
hole in the barn roof about eight foot long and four foot wide. His body then
tore through the rafters and landed on the cement floor.
Two employees of the estate,
August and Albert, were in the barn when
it happened. They thought the barn was collapsing when the poor boy came
crashing through the roof. Then they heard the boy moaning, incredibly Chester
was still alive after the fall.
A couple of doctors arrived at
the scene to find a horrified crowd from the fair gathered around the boy who
was moaning in agony. The doctors looked at the boy with tears in their eyes
knowing there was nothing they could do for him. His body lay limp and the
doctors could tell that almost every bone was broken as blood seeped from his
mouth and nose.
Chester was still alive when the
ambulance arrived. They carefully loaded him inside and both doctors rode with
him but sadly he died on the way to the hospital, before his parents were even notified
of the accident.
Later the police interviewed
Professor Abner Amedill questioning- why he didn’t cut the rope as soon as he
heard the boy’s cry for help?
His response was: Then both of us would be dead.
He went on to say that bad luck
and unfortunate occurrences had been haunting him for weeks. A couple of weeks before the fair his balloon
caught fire and he was burned. After
that a gas bag broke and he fell from the balloon, causing bruising and a
sprain. A week before a similar incident
happened with another kid in Kentucky.
Chester’s accident was the third
time this type of accident has happened with the professor.
No charges were ever filed against Professor Abner Amedill.
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| Flint Photo Credit: David C. Lucas- DS Photo |
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