Thursday, September 6, 2018

On This Date in Minnesota History: September 6

September 6, 1905 – Slipping its moorings on a Ferris Wheel operated at the Minnesota State Fair, a wicker car fell 50 feet to the ground this afternoon resulting in the almost instant death of Mrs. Ida Sebenthal of Eau Claire, Wis., and serious injuries to her husband, Frank R. Sebenthal, which will probably maim him for life.


Mrs. Sebenthal1



Mr. Sebenthal1



A defective steel fastening on one of the wicker cars released it when at its highest evaluation. Before the passengers in the ill-fated car realized their danger, one end of the car became unfastened and the occupants rolled out over the side of the wheel with parts of the car thundering after them.

Both Sebenthals were struck on their heads. The wife received a severe gash back of the ear that severed her spine and she died on the way to the state fair emergency hospital. Her husband, who was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital in St. Paul, had his right leg broken above the knee, his right thigh broken and he sustained severe injuries about the head. It was reported at the hospital this evening that he would recover.

The couple, both about 50-years-old, entered the car “to get off the earth,” to use the expression of the noisy barker by which he induced people to enter the fragile looking cars about 3:30 p.m. and had not made one revolution on the wheel when the accident happened.

Every car on the wheel was full when the accident occurred, and men, women and children clung to each other thinking that any moment they would meet a like fate. The crowd about the wheel was so dense that the fair police could hardly restrain it and the feeling against the operators of the Ferris Wheel ran high.

Stretchers from the emergency hospital bore the forms of the couple to the hospital. The wife, however, had died before she was placed on the stretcher and attention was centered on the husband. After his operation, the husband revived and insisted upon seeing his wife; when he was taken into the room where she was laid out and learned of her death, he collapsed completely.

A thorough examination of the wheel where the accident occurred indicates many defects in its mechanism, such as rusted and bent bolts and ramshackle joints.

When C. N. Cosgrove was asked concerning the liability of the state fair management in case of accident and said that a recent act of the legislature had put the state fair into the same relation with the individual as the state itself. The state fair cannot be sued. Action can, however, be brought against the proprietor of the wheel for damages. This is the first fatality that has ever occurred on the fairgrounds.


Minnesota State Fair
2


The Minneapolis Journal; “Fatal Accident At State Fair. Mrs. F. R. Sebenthal, of Eau Claire, Wis., Instantly Killed, And Her Husband Terribly Injured And Maimed For Life By Breaking Of Ferris Wheel—Thrown From Car At Top Of Circle And Plunging Fifty-Five Feet To The Ground. Device Said To Be Defective; Rigid Investigation To Be Made.”; Sept. 7, 1905; p. 1.

1The Minneapolis Tribune; “Body of Unfortunate Mrs. Sebenthal Is Taken to Eau Claire Home by Son. Husband Travels On Same Train, Resting on Cot In Baggage Car. Building Inspector Houghton Examines Wheel and Finds It Rotten From Long Use.”; Sept. 8, 1905; p. 9.

2Photo taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released into the public domain Aug. 27, 2017, as long as acknowledgement included.

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