Crushed By Hay Rake

Young Woman in Wyoming Meets Horrible Death.

Cheyenne, Wyo., July 21.-Miss KITTIE MCPHEE, aged 23 years, daughter of Mrs. Donald McPhee, met a horrible death at Islay, a station twenty miles north of Cheyenne on the line of the Colorado & Southern, yesterday.

She was driving a hay rake for her brother-in-law, who has a contract to harvest the crop of the Vantassel ranch. The tongue of the rake broke, pitching Miss MCPHEE under the horses heels. The animals bolted and dragged her body on the rake for more than a mile before they could be stopped by the horrified witnesses of the accident.

The prongs of the rake mutilated the girl’s body, and her hair, catching in the wheels, was torn from her head, carrying the greater part of the scalp with it.

When extricated from the rake she still lived and doctors were summoned by wire from Cheyenne, but she succumbed to her injuries two hours after the accident.

An examination by Dr. A.W. Barber revealed that the back of her skull had been crushed, probably by a blow from the hoof of one of the horses. In this case she was unconscious before the horrible ride over the field began.

Miss MCPHEE’S body was brought to Cheyenne this evening, accompanied by her aged mother and sister. The young woman was well known in Cheyenne. She rode in the woman’s races at several frontier performances, and at one time was holder of the woman’s world’s championship. Arrangements for her funeral have not been considered.

Salt Lake Telegram, Salt Lake City, UT 21 Jul 1903

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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!