William Mathern was electrocuted at 4 o’clock Friday afternoon by coming in contact with the primary wires of the electric light company. The primaries carry 1,100 volts. He was repairing a transformer on a pole in the alley back of D. C. VanDeuson’s residence. He was shifting his position and it is supposed that he struck the ground wire with the spike on his climbers and slipped, when he grabbed with both hands for the crossarm and missed it and came in contact with the main lines from the power house. He was probably sweating and, being grounded, got the full force of the primaries and the ground. Death was instantaneous. George Lucas of the Nebraska Telephone company and Robert Steele of the light company were with him. They threw a rope over the crossarm and let him down from the pole. They called a doctor and Mr. Lucas examined him, but could not feel his heart beat. They tried the usual method of moving his arms back and forth, but he only gave a couple of gasps as the air left his lungs. The doctor said he was dead before they removed him from the pole. The flesh was burned from the inside of both his hands. Mr. Mathern was twenty years old and grew to manhood in Blair. He was a graduate of the Blair High school of the class of 1907, and had been in the employ of the electric light company for about five years and was a first class electrician. This was the third violent death in the family. Mrs. Mathern’s first husband was shot about twenty five years ago while the family were sitting at the table eating supper. Mr. Mathern’s father was poisoned some five years ago from eating wild parsnips. Mr. Mathern was a model young man, quiet and unassuming, and always attended strictly to his own business. The funeral will be held today and interment made in the Blair cemetery. He will be greatly missed by the family and his many friends in Blair. The sympathy of the entire community goes out to the stricken family in this, their hour of sorrow.

#2-18 Aug., 1910 - Blair Democrat - William Mathern

BLAIR BOY ELECTROCUTED

William Mathern, an employee of the Bullock Public Service Co. in this city, was electrocuted last Friday afternoon about 3:30 while changing a transformer that was being moved on account of its nearness to a cable of the Nebraska Telephone Company.

Young Mathern had been in the employ of the electric light company for the past five years, a year or two before he finished his course in the Blair schools. He was a very proficient workman and had been promised a promotion in a few weeks.

In company with George Lucas, lineman of the Nebraska Telephone Company at this point, Mathern had been changing transformers that had been bothering the telephone company’s cables in different parts of the city, and it was while he was working on a job of this kind in the alley back of Editor VanDeusen’s home that he met his death.

It will never be known just how the accident occurred because Lucas was not looking at Mathern when he received the charge of electricity that ended his life. Mathern was about twelve feet above the ground disconnecting the wires from the transformer, and Lucas was standing down on the ground handing up tools as Mathern called for them.

The first intimation that Lucas had of an accident, he heard his companion groaning, and looking up saw him hanging limp from the pole, suspended by his belt. Lucas and another helper climbed up the pole to render what aid they could and lowered the unfortunate boy to the ground, but life was seemingly extinct when they reached him. A physician was summoned, but as there were no signs of life in the body, nothing could be done.

Mathern was about twenty two years old, and besides a widowed mother leaves a sister, two half brothers and a half sister. He was a young man of steady habits and was supporting his widowed mother. The first husband of the boy’s mother was mysteriously murdered on a farm north of Blair about twenty five years ago, and the boy’s father met death by poisoning about fifteen years ago.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #58314683