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IDAHO COUNTY FREE PRESS Idaho Territory - Friday, November 12, 1886 FATAL ACCIDENT - Newton HOlt is Crushed to Death by a Bucking Broncho Last Sabbath News was brought to town at an early hour last Sunday morning that Newton Holt had been killed by a horse falling on him at Rall Brown's ranch, two miles north of Mt. Idaho. The circumstances of the accident as near as can be ascertained, are about as follows: Sunday morning Holt mounted his horse with the intention of riding out on the prairie. The horse was broke to ride a year ago, but was always a vicious animal and Holt was no sooner fairly seated in the saddle on this fateful morning than the horse commenced bucking with unusual violence. Holt was a splendid horseman and nothing that ever wore a saddle could throw him, and it is by some, supposed that the animal became frantic at its useless attempts to unseat its rider, and that it threw itself violently on the ground to relieve itself of its burden in that manner. Others suppose that there was a touch of frost in the ground and that its violent buckings on the side-hill caused it to lose its grip on the slippery surface and it fell heavily to the ground. The one sure-enough fact is that the horse fell on the side-hill with Holt underneath, and that the combined weight of the horse and the force of the fall absolutely crushed in the poor boy's chest and head, so that the circulation of the blood was diverted from its rightful channels and forced through the nose, mouth and ears. Assistance was soon at hand but he was beyond help, and after half-an-hour's heavy breathing during which he remained insensible he passed peacefully away into the unknown land. The body was brought to Mt. Idaho Sunday and was buried the following day in the presence of a large assemblage of friends. The deceased arrived on the prairie with his father's family from the Touchet country four years since. He was tall and muscular and the perfection of physical manhood, fearless, brave and generous to a fault. He had been working for Rolin Brown since spring and had only lately returned from a trip to the Bitter-root valley with a band of Mr. Brown's horses. The accident was one of those fatalities which can neither be foreseen nor anticipated. The fatality occurred almost on the exact spot where the Chinaman, Ah Fat, was killed last July. |
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