Carl John Alfred Hammerberg. Case No. 5148. Letter from F. E. Resche to D. H. Knickerbacker, January 17, 1924.
Type of event: Incarcerations
Location: St. Cloud; Stearns County; Minnesota; United States
Addressee: D. H. Knickerbacker
Addressor: F. E. Resche
Document date:
Document type: Correspondence
Citation:
Minnesota State Reformatory for Men [St. Cloud State Reformatory].
Carl John Alfred Hammerberg: Case No. 5148.
Inmate Case Files.
Letter from F. E. Resche to D. H. Knickerbacker, January 17, 1924.
Image text
IN CONNECTION WITH THE DISTRICT, JUVENILE, PROBATE AND
MUNICIPAL COURTS
County of St. Louis Probation Officer, Room 315 Court House |
DULUTH
F. E. RESCHE, PROBATION
OFFICER
MRS. J. C. SWANGE} DEPUTIES MARTHA J. OSTBY } HIBBING
C. E. EVERETT, PROBATION
OFFICER
QUENETH F. L. CARLETON, DEPUTY VIRGINIA
D. S. PINGREY }
DEPUTIES
SADIE M. GATELY } |
Duluth, Minn.,
January
17-1924.
Mr. D. H. Knickerbacker,
Parole Agent,
St. Cloud,
Minnesota.
My dear Mr. Knickerbarcker:
The enclosed clipping is for
your information as I believe Hammerberg was on parole from you
institution.
Yours truly,
F. E. Resche
F. E.
Resche
Probation Officer,
FER:MJO St. Louis County,
Minnesota.
1 encl.
[Duluth News Tribune, January 17, 1924]
2 Duluth Youths Found Dead in Freight Car;
‘Beating’ Way Ends futile Search for Work
Clarence Gauthier
and Carl Hammerberg, Trapped in Ice Compartment, Die From Fumes of Charcoal
Burners.
Clarence Gauthier, 20, 429 N Sixtieth av W, and Carl Hammerberg, 21, 431
N Sixtieth av W, were found dead in the ice compartment of a Northern Pacific
railroad refrigerator car Wednesday morning, following arrival of the car in
Duluth from Minneapolis. Fumes from charcoal burners placed in the car to kept
the goods from freezing, snuffed out their lives, an autopsy conducted by
Coroner C. F. McComb revealed. It was several hours before identification of the
two was made.
‘Beat’ Way to Mill City.
The two young men, it was disclosed, left Duluth on a Minneapolis bound
freight train Tuesday noon with the intention of looking for work. Apparently
they had changed their minds about seeking work in the Mill City and forthwith
looked to the refrigerator care of a night train as the only means of aiding
them to ‘beat’ their way back to the city.
Their bodies were
discovered by Hjalmer Haugland, 921 Tenth av E. and N. P. freight depot
employee, when he made his rounds shortly after 8 a.m. to remove the charcoal
burners from the car.
Several Duluth telephone numbers found on a piece of
paper in the pockets of one of them and an employment ticket made out to Carl
Hammerberg, by the Virginia & Rainy Lake Lumber company on Nov. 14,
furnished Coroner C. F. McComb with his fist clues to their identity. The bodies
were taken to Crawford’s mortuary.
Raymond Wolfe, 703 E. Second st.
was the first to identify Hammerberg. Later, Mrs. Clyde Gauthier, a
sister-in-law of Clarence, and her sister, Mrs. Harold McLellan, identified both
bodies.
Miss Vanda Hammerberg, 23, a sister of Carl, was notified of her
brother’s death, late Wednesday. The two were supporting their aged
mother, Mrs. Betsy Hammerberg. The father also survives, but his present
whereabouts is not known.
“Carl would have been 22 next month,”
Mrs. Hammerberg said. “He hadn’t had any work for many months and
although I tried so hard to keep him at home as I have been taking care of
things with my wages, he felt he ought to help.”
From the position of
the two bodies when found in the car, it is thought that one of them made a
struggle to reach the top of the car where the trap door is located. The boys
are thought to have let themselves down through the holed and pulled the straps
tight to keep from being found by the train crew. This sealed the car tight and
the fumes from the burning charcoal made quick work of the helpless
victims.
The body of young Hammerberg will be taken to Bell Brothers
undertaking rooms today and that of Gauthier to M. J. Filiatrauit, pending
completion of funeral arrangements.