A Farmyard Tragedy in Hover
An eight-year-old girl is rushed to the hospital after a serious accident with a farm animal.
Lydia Toothaker, eight-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Toothaker, was quite seriously hurt last Saturday evening. She was helping her brother Elwood get the horses out to water, when one of them kicked at the other and Lydia happened to be within range of the horse's foot and was struck in the head. Dr. Crosby was summoned at once and the skull was found to be broken so badly that she was taken at once to the Walla Walla hospital where Dr. Keeler performed the operation. The broken piece of skull was removed and when Mr. Toothaker returned from Walla Walla Sunday morning she seemed to be getting along nicely.
“She was helping her brother Elwood get the horses out to water, when one of them kicked at the other and Lydia happened to be within range.”
Accidents involving livestock were a common and brutal fact of life in the agricultural communities of early Kennewick. This incident highlights the inherent dangers of childhood on family farms during the era.
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