Aug. 23, 2025: 91 YEARS AGO...Wright County Farmer Meets Accidental Death

L. W. Brown Decapitated When Flying Wheel On Woodsaw Breaks

Reprinted from the April 19, 1934 edition of the Ozark County Times - L. W. Brown, 46 year old farmer of four miles west of Mountain Grove, met instant death last Wednesday morning about 10 o’clock, when the fly-wheel on a wood saw, with which he was working, burst and completely severed his head from his body. Parts of the severed member were lodged in the branches of trees 30 to 40 feet away. 

The accident happened so quickly that other workmen scarcely knew how to describe the accident. It seems a log had stalled the saw and while some of the crew pulled the log away from the saw, one man went to the engine and turned on the power. The saw freed from the log and under the stimulus of more power, speeded up so quickly that the fly-wheel went to pieces under the strain. 

Mr. Brown was sawing wood for his neighbor, Mrs. Zilpha Burns. Two of the Burns boys and another man were assisting him.