Editor’s note: This is the sixth and final story in a series which has been published on Fort Atkinson Online documenting the fatal firetruck crash of Dec. 17, 1923, which was described by the then-“Jefferson County Union” as the “worst tragedy in the city’s history.”
By Chris Spangler
Life has its twists, and an ironic one is linked to the Fort Atkinson fire truck crash that claimed three lives 100 years ago Sunday.
Mary Beyerly, of Fort Atkinson, and her brother, Gerald F. Moore, of Ashville, N.C., are the grandchildren of Frank E. Hoffman, 42, one of three firefighters who died in the Dec. 17, 1923, tragedy. His great-granddaughters are Martha McWilliams and Betsy Gasper, both of Fort Atkinson.
Hoffman passed away when Mary and Gerald’s mother, Geraldine, was 10 years old and their grandmother, Clara, was in her early 40s.
Hoffman and five other firefighters were riding the city’s new American LaFrance triple-combination pumper when it struck a culvert and crashed in a cornfield about three miles west of Fort Atkinson.
They were enroute to a house fire in Rockdale, near Cambridge, when the accident occurred just minutes after leaving town.
According to an email from Gerald, the only telephone in the village of Rockdale in 1923 was located at the H.I. Tellefson General Store. So when the fire broke out the afternoon of Dec. 17, someone rushed there to call for mutual aid from area fire departments.
“Tending the store at that time was H.I.’s (Harlow’s) daughter, Verna Tellefson, who called the fire department,” Gerald wrote in the email.
Verna likely was a teenager in high school at the time, Mary added.
Coincidentally, the fire reportedly was at a house owned by an A.C. Tellefson. In such a small community, that likely was a relation to the general store owner, although that has not been confirmed.
“Fast-forward to 1930, when Verna Tellefson married Melvin Berntson of Deerfield. In 1938, they adopted a daughter, Sybil Berntson,” Gerald wrote.
Meanwhile, Frank Hoffman’s daughter, Geraldine, met Frederick Moore and they married in 1935. Four years later, they had a son, Gerald Frederick.
Gerald met Sybil Berntson when they both were attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison and they married in 1960.
So the grandson of one of the firefighters killed enroute to the 1923 Rockdale blaze ended up marrying the daughter of the woman who called the Fort Atkinson Fire Department for mutual aid that day one century ago.
“Even though Gerald had no direct connection to this horrible event and never knew his grandfather, Frank, two families, completely unknown to each other at the time, were inexplicably involved in this memorable tragedy,” Gerald concluded.
Sighting the site
Meanwhile, another twist of fate helped shed light on the 1923 fatal crash.
When they began researching it, Mike Reel and Jim Slocum didn’t expect to become amateur sleuths. But it wasn’t too long diving into the archives before they realized that a lot of details about the tragedy remained a mystery.
Slocum is a 33-year paid-on-call veteran of the Fort Atkinson Fire Department. He is engineer of all current day fire apparatus, as well as assists with driver training programs.
Retired Fire Chief Reel served 36 years as a career member of the fire department. Still chief engineer, he is responsible for fire apparatus repairs, specifications and training of all drivers/engineers for the department’s apparatus.
Both also are very interested in history, and it is thanks to their efforts that the six firemen involved in the accident a century ago are being paid tribute.
The Dec. 21, 1923, issue of the Jefferson County Union reported that the U.S. Highway 12 crash took place at 3:43 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17, at a curve 3-1/3 miles from the western city limits.
“We started to ask our questions and one day, I’m taking a tour out there and I’m trying to figure out where 3-1/3 miles from Fort would be,” Reel said. “Where do you start?
“They said from the city limits and it got us thinking,” he continued. “I got out an old plat book from 1923 and the city limits was Jackson Street. So what’s the luck I can find it? I tripped the odometer on the car and I drove 3-1/3 miles out of town and holy smokes, something just told me we were in the spot.”
He was very, very close. The crash took place at the bottom of the slightly curved hill about 400 feet past Radloff Lane, today the turnoff to Dorothy Carnes County Park. After striking a culvert wall, the truck sent down a small ditch and then catapulted into the southside cornfield, now owned by Marsha Herr.
“They hit a culvert and we know that Highway 12 has changed a million times too, so what are the chances that that is even the same, but there is a culvert that comes under Highway 12 today,” Reel said.
So he called Slocum and told him they were going for a ride.
After picking up historic crash photos at the fire station, they drove back out to the site.
“We went to the first spot and said, ‘no, this isn’t it.’ We were only one farmhouse off,” Reel recalled. “So we pulled in (a farm lane) and were looking at the the picture. The barn is there. The house is there. The barn door is there. The barn windows are there. The weathervanes are there. These buildings are still standing.”
Reel said the lay of the land suggests that the culvert was there in 1923 to drain water from the fields.
“The guardrails are there now … but the hair on the back of my neck kind of stood up. So we got out of the car and we were checking it even further and we got it to line right up,” Reel said.
On Thursday, the fire department placed a lighted memorial with banners, an American flag and three crosses at the fatality site that was to remain through Sunday.
While there, Reel pointed out the farm buildings that match those in the photos taken 100 years ago.
Meanwhile, Reel and Slocum extended thanks to the Hoard Historical Museum, Dwight Foster Public Library and Daily Jefferson County Union for providing the materials to research the tragedy.
“Countless hours have been spent by Jim and myself researching (the crash), but it was an honor to remember and to put a timeline to the history while (giving) a personal touch to the firemen and families that lost so much,” Reel concluded.
Gerald and Sybil (Berntson) Moore today reside in Ashville, N.C. Contributed photo.
A flag is flown Sunday by the Fort Atkinson Fire Department as a tribute to the three lives lost on Dec. 17, 1923. Chris Spangler photo.
Mary Beyerle, Fort Atkinson, views photos of the firetruck crash that claimed the life of her grandfather, Frank E. Hoffman, on Dec. 17, 1923.
Facing east, this is the curved hill along U.S. Highway 12, three miles west of Fort Atkinson, where a fatal fire truck crash took place a century ago. Six firefighters were traveling west down this hill — just past Radloff Lane, the turnoff to Dorothy Carnes County Park. The truck struck a culvert and went end over end into a southside cornfield, which in this picture is on the right. Chris Spangler photo.
Firefighters Mike Reel, at left, and Jim Slocum look at photos of farm buildings located across U.S. Highway 12 from the site where a truck crash killed three firemen on Dec. 17, 1923. The buildings remain there today and helped Reel and Slocum pinpoint the crash’s exact location.
Two photos above: Firefighter Mike Reel points to and explains how the farm buildings located across U.S. Highway 12 helped identify the exact site of the firetruck crash that claimed three lives and injured three others on Dec. 17, 1923. Chris Spangler photos.
Two photos above: At top, farm buildings located across U.S. Highway 12 from the site of a fatal firetruck crash Dec. 17, 1923, are shown; above, the same barn can be seen today, which was used to help firefighters pinpoint the crash site in advance of erecting an outdoor tribute. Top photo courtesy of the Fort Atkinson Fire Department; photo above by Chris Spangler.
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