Payette County ID Archives Obituaries.....Renner, Sarah E. 1903 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/idfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Patty Theurer seymour784@yahoo.com August 21, 2005, 7:00 pm Payette Independent, Payette, Idaho, June 25, 1903 Payette Independent Payette, Idaho Thursday June 25, 1903 Fatal Accident in a Runaway: Aged Woman Instantly Killed by Being Thrown from a Hack and Her Leg Broken One of the most shocking fatal accidents in the history of Payette for several years occured Wednesday evening near town between 5 and 6 o'clock, as the result of a runaway, when Mrs. Sarah E. Renner, mother of Mrs. M.W. Watts, 68 years of age, was thrown from a hack and instantly killed. The neck of the aged woman was broken by the fall, and the back of her head was crushed in, and her body was badly bruised in several places. Several other women and children who were in the hack with Mrs. Renner when the horses became frightened and started to run managed to jump out without injury, with the exception of Mrs. S.W. Hickerson, the driver, who was thrown down after reaching the ground with the lines in her hand and dragged a few feet, but it is thought not dangerously injured. The accident was one of those regretable but seemingly unavoidable occurrances so often had with horses. A party of the West Side neighborhood composed of Mrs. Hickerson and two small children and her baby, Mrs. Wm. Droege, Mrs. J.F. Putnam, little Zadie Keith and Mrs. Renner, the deceased, had gone to Chas. Hartung's ranch, about three and one-half miles north of the city, to pick gooseberries, making a sort of picnic of their trip, all in high spirits and filled with the zest of life in harmony with the beautiful June day, little thinking that it was to end in such sorrow. They started for home shortly after 5 o'clock and had gone but a short distance, having reached a place just this side of the Broderson ranch, where the road is narrow, running between a wire fence and a cut for a big ditch, when a band of range horses came down from the hills and ran around them, frightening and greatly exciting their team, which began backing. Fearing that they would be backed into the ditch or the fence, the occupants of the hack began jumping out. They all reached the ground in safety with the exception of Mrs. Renner and Mrs. Hickerson's baby, which the former, who was in the back seat, had been holding, but which in the confusion had fallen to the bottom of the conveyance. Distracted with fear for her little one, Mrs. Hickerson rushed to the side of the hack and managed to lift it out. In doing so, the lines were jerked from her hand and she was thrown down, and although she cried to Mrs. Renner to jump out, the poor woman seemed to be so prostrated with fear as to be unable to do so, and an instant later the maddened horses started to run down the road towards town, with the lines dragging and the unfortunate occupant of the hack entirely at their mercy. The last scene of the destressing spectacle by the others of the party, until the body was later found in the road, was as the rig went over the brow of a small hill when Mrs. Renner seemed to have fallen down betwen the seats. As soon as possible the other members of the party followed down the road after the team. Just before they reached the corner at the top of the hill above E.L. Turner's place, about three-quarters of a mile from where the horses started to run, they came upon the pitiful sight of Mrs. Renner, prostrate in the road, bleeding about the head in several places. It is understood that she emitted a groan as they lifted her but they were soon convinced that she was passed all medical aid. She was placed in a blanket which had fallen from the hack and covered with the aprons of those in the party and one of them went to Mr. Turner's house and phoned to town for help. A man who was passing by in a buggy afterwards brought the body to town and it was taken to the cottage of the deceased in Peter's addition. Upon the arrival of a doctor it was found that the neck of the unfortunate woman had been broken and she was otherwide injured as previously stated. After Mrs. Renner was thrown out the horses ran on down the road a few hundred yards until they collided with a telephone pole, when they broke loose, afterwards being caught and brought to town. This (Thursday) morning at 9 o'clock although there was no desire for such action upon the part of the relatives of the deceased, an inquest upon the body was held by Coroner Delano, who insisted that it was necesary, the jury having rendered a verdict, in accordance with the facts brought out as above stated. Mrs. Hickerson was so shocked by the awful experience and grief at the death of Mrs. Renner that she was unable to attend the inquest, her statement of the facts having been taken at her home. Mrs. Sarah E. Renner was born in Ontario, Canada, and was 68 years of age on June 6. She had lived in Indiana and Illinois for a number of years and in Norton county, Kansas, for 20 years prior to coming to Payette about two and one-half years ago. Besides her daughter Mrs. Watts of Payette, she left three sons, two in Kansas and one in California. The funeral will take place from the German Baptist Church, of which the deceased was a member, Friday morning at 10 o'clock. 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