Eugene Tidrick Was Killed Instantly In Car Crash Near Chandlerville Saturday NightEugene Tidrick Was Killed Instantly In Car Crash Near Chandlerville Saturday NightEugene Tidrick, 26, of Astoria, was killed instantly at around 10:30 Saturday night when the 1950 Buick sedan, owned and driven by Robert Rawley of near Summum, crashed into a narrow bridge on the Beardstown-Chandlerville blacktop road, three miles west of Chandlerville, near the Schell farm.
Rawley was taken to the Schmitt Memorial hospital, Beardstown, in the Lintner ambulance from Chandlerville. He sustained a fractured right arm above the elbow, a cut over the left eye and a bruised kidney. Also severe body bruises.
Rawley had driven to Rushville, where he, by chance, met Tidrick, and as Tidrick wanted to see a party at Matanza, they left together, going by way of Beardstown, enroute by way of Chandlerville over the blacktop road.
At the point of the accident a narrow bridge makes a short job in the road and in attempting to slow down the speed of the car, Rawley applied the brakes and as a result the car skidded into the concrete bridge with such force that the right hand banister was driven through the right side of the car clear to the trunk.
It required two farm tractors to remove the car from the bridge before Tidrick, who was wedged in the rear of the sedan, could be removed.
The car was towed to a used car lot in Beardstown where it was viewed by hundreds of people Sunday, who said it was the worst wrecked car they had ever seen. Only the four tires remained intact.
The body was removed to the Shawgo Memorial Home in Astoria where funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock, conducted by Elder Claud L. Turner, of the Seven Day Adventist church, in Galesburg. Burial was in the Astoria cemetery. Ex-service men acted as pallbearers.
Eugene Tidrick was born Oct. 8, 1924 in Astoria, a son of Linas and Mildred Camp Tidrick. He was a veteran of World War II. He and Rawley were in the same company overseas. Tidrick was in service from Jan. 2, 1943 to June 4, 1946, a private first class.
Rawley resides just east of Summum on his father’s farm where he is engaged in farming.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus