Martin, Olen Glen (1949-1959)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1959 Jun 11 p. 7

Birth date: 1949

text of obituary:

10-Year-Old Maryland Boy Crushed Under Tractor

MACHINE CLIMBS WALL OF SILO AND OVERTURNS ON YOUTHFUL DRIVER

Hagerstown, Md. — On Friday evening, May 22, Olen Glen Martin, 10-year-old son of Russell and Lois (Diller) Martin, was crushed by an overturned tractor and died a short time later.

The fatal accident happened while Olen was operating a farm tractor on their farm south of Hagerstown. he had a flat bed wagon in tow and was backing up between the silo and barn preparing to pick up some ensilage. While in the process of changing gears to move forward a bit, the motor suddenly speeded up. As the gears were engaged the tractor lurched forward and the big left rear wheel started to climb the wall of the silo. This caused the tractor to tip over, pinning the boy between the tractor and ground.

Brother Escapes

Lowell, six-year-old brother of Olen,had been on the tractor a few minutes before, but had gotten off to chase some cows away. When he saw what happened he went screaming toward the house.

The father, hearing the sudden speedup of the tractor motor, knew something was wrong and was already running toward the scene. He jacked up the overturned tractor enough to free his son. The boy died en route to the hospital of a crushed chest.

Besides his many friend, he is survived by his parents and four brothers and two sisters, Delbert, Linford, Carolyn, Roger, Wilma Jean and Lowell, all at home, and his maternal grandparents, Albert and Fannie (Shank) Diller, and parental grandfather, Abram Martin.