ACCIDENTAL DEATH CAUSED BY DEADLY GAS IN WELL PIT

Glenn A. Batchelder, 33, Is Asphyxiated - Companion Has Close Escape From Similar Fate

Funeral services for Glenn A. Batchelder, 33 years old, Gleason, victim of monoxide gas fumes that also nearly snuffed out the life of another man on Christmas day, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Riverside Presbyterian church.

The tragedy occurred about 5 p.m. Sunday when Batchelder and his friend, William Stein, Jr., 35 years old, also of Gleason, were flooding a skating rink for neighborhood children along the Milwaukee road tracks in Gleason.

Batchelder was asphyxiated and Stein was overcome in the pit of a well from which they were drawing water for the rink with a gasoline-engine pumper.

Refuels Engine
When the rink was nearly flooded the engine stalled and the two men obtained some gasoline to refuel the engine.

Batchelder descended a 16-foot ladder to refuel the engine. Stein said he heard the engine start and picked up the hose line as the water again started to flow.

When Batchelder did not respond a few minutes later, Stein went to the pit to look for him.

Through an opening, three by four feet, in the top of the roof enclosing the pit, Stein saw Batchelder's body dangling by the foot from a rung of the ladder.

Stein went down the ladder to get Batchelder. He lifted him from the ladder and laid him on the floor of the pit after shutting off the engine, sensing that his friend had been overcome by gas fumes.

Rescuer Overcome
On the way up the ladder to summon help, Stein was also overcome and fell across Batchelder's body.

When Batchelder did not return home for supper, Mrs. Batchelder sent their 11-year-old son, Donald, to look for him. Donald failed to see what had occurred, but he sounded an alarm that brought a group of villagers to the scene.

Jess Wedler and George Martell risked the fumes to descend into the pit. They tied ropes around Batchelder and Stein and the two were hoisted to the surface.

Wedler and Martell, with Charles Dane, Charles Elliott, Harold Coyer, Dave and John Wedler, worked frantically to resuscitate Batchelder and Stein by artificial respiration methods.

One Is Revived
Stein finally was revived, but the rescuers could not bring life back into the body of Batchelder. A call to Merrill brought Sheriff Emil Krueger with a pulmotor from the city fire department, but Batchelder was beyond help.

He was pronounced dead by Dr. K. A. Morris, who had been summoned.

Stein said the last he remembers before he was overcome by the fumes was attempting to climb the ladder.

Coroner Arthur E. Taylor, after investigating Batchelder's death, said no inquest would be held and that the case would be recorded as an accident.

Only Serious Accident
The tragedy was the only serious accident in this section over the holiday.

Taylor said he learned that Batchelder made a trip to Wausau to borrow the engine pumper to make a rink for children in the Gleason neighborhood.

Batchelder, operator of a harness and shoe shop in Gleason, lived in the village for the last thirteen years.

He was born August 27, 1905, at Vinton, Ia., son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert A. Batchelder. He married Miss Alice Wedler at Waukegan, Ill., December 27, 1926. Another son, Glenn Jr., preceded him in death.

Also surviving are his parents, six brothers, Louis, Two Rivers; Howard, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Victor, Milwaukee; Leland, Alvin and Delbert, Merrill; five sisters, Mrs. Gladys Welk, Mrs. Margaret Henrichs, Dolores and Ila May, also of Merrill, and Mrs. Ruth Schreiber, Tomahawk.

The body will lie in state at Schram's until Thursday noon when it will be taken to the Riverside church. The body will lie in state in the church until the hour of the funeral. The Rev. Edward A. George of this city will officiate. Burial will be held in the Gleason cemetery.

(Merrill Daily Herald - December 27, 1938)