2 KILLED, 3 INJURED
Eastern Lewis County Scene of Two Fatal Week End Accidents

Eastern Lewis county was the scene of two fatal accidents the past week end. The victims were Victor Hoveland, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Hoveland, of Littell, and Jacob Belegard [sic], employed as a locomotive engineer by a lumber company operating in Highland Valley, near Morton.

Young Hoveland was killed early yesterday when his automobile collided with a logging truck driven by Concrete Blankenship of Riffe, on the National Park highway, near Riffe. Hoveland's father, 55, and Miss Alice Elder, 19, daughter of Mrs. Jane Elder, Chehalis, who were with him, each suffered crtical injuries, and were rushed to the Bridge clinic in Tacoma. Victor Hoveland sustained a fractured skill. His father's skull was fractured, one hib broken and he was unconscious for a time. Miss Elder's skull was also reported fractured and one leg was broken. At last report she had not regained consciousness.

Blankenship was not hurt.

Victor Hoveland and Miss Elder, to whom he was engaged, were taking his father to National, where he was to begin work today in a mill and had left Chehalis about daylight. The accident happened on a curve in the road midway between the Ghosn store at Riffe and the Riffe bridge across the Cowlitz river. Hoveland's car headed directly into the truck driven by Blankenship, it was reported. The latter's story to Coroner W. R. Scott, State Patrolman Lou Geer and Deputy Sheriff Jim Compton, who investigated the accident, was verified that he had driven to his side of the highway to permit Hoveland to go by, the officers said.

Hoveland's body wa taken to the Fissel funeral home at Chehalis. His parents have been residents of Littell 18 years. Other surviving relatives are three brothers, Robert Hoveland and Clifford Hoveland of Littell, and Lawrence HOveland of Baker, Ore., and three sisters, Mrs. Ralph Young of Chehalis, Miss Esther Hoveland of Bellingham, and Mrs. Vern Howard of Baker, Ore.

Beleggard [sic] was killed Saturday afternoon when a fully loaded logging car ran away on a steep grade and crashed into locomotive. He was crushed to death while Albert Eldor, 24, his fireman, was badly scalded. He was rushed to a Tacoma hospital.

Belegard's son, Clarence, aged 14, witnessed his father's death. The lad, employed at a donkey engine as whistle signal man, sent warning after warning shrilling from the donkey boiler, but Belegard and the fireman, working in the locomotive far down the track, apparently failed to hear the alarm.

Watching horrified and helpless, young Belegard say [sic] the heavy carload of logs rapidly gathering momentum as it sped down the steep incline.

Eldor, the fireman, apparently heard the heavy car an instant before it crashed into the locomotive, catapulting it into the soft marsh alongside the tracks. The fireman leaped, but Belegard at his post in the cab, was killed instantly.

Belegard, about 46 years old, is survived by his wife and four children.

A tthe Bridge clinic in Tacoma, it was reported Eldor had only fair chances for recovery.

Source: The Centralia Daily Chronicle, Monday, 24 Jul 1933. Front page and p. 6.

Transcribed by Jenny Tenlen. She has no further information on this individual.

[Editor's note: Alice Elder died on 26 Jul 1933, aged 17. She was the daughter of Smith and Jane (Goldsmith) Elder, and is buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in Centralia, Lewis Co., WA. The proper spelling of Jacob's surname is Delegard, according to the Washington State Death Records. Jacob Delegard is buried in Morton Cemetery. Albert Eldor died on 1 Aug 1933, aged 24. According to Find-A-Grave, he is buried at Mountain View Memorial Park in Lakewood, Pierce Co., WA.]