A Father’s Ax, a Lodged Tree, and a Boy’s Death in the Woods
Seventeen-year-old Charles H. Day was killed near Chewelah while cutting railroad ties with his father when an ax glanced off a lodged tree and severed an artery behind his knee.
Charles H. Day, aged 17, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Day, who reside on a homestead near Chewelah, died from loss of blood about 5 o'clock Feb. 7. He was accidentally struck with an ax in the hands of his father, severing the large artery just back of the knee, which resulted in his death from loss of blood a few hours later. The father and son went into the woods to cut railroad ties, and were in the act of felling trees, when one became lodged against another, and in attempting to cut away the obstruction the ax in some manner missed the tree, striking the son, who was standing near, with the result above stated. The father bound up the wound to stop the flow of blood, but later loosened the bandage to relieve the pain in response to the pleading of the boy.
“The father bound up the wound to stop the flow of blood, but later loosened the bandage to relieve the pain in response to the pleading of the boy.”
Logging and tie-cutting were staple winter work in the Pend Oreille and Stevens County woods, and this story shows how thin the margin was between a family’s livelihood and catastrophe. Today workplace safety rules and emergency response are taken for granted, but rural Washington still knows the danger of remote work in the woods.
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