Gust Anderson
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - August 15, 1919
Lightening Kills Two Lumbermen Near Red Cliff
Gust Anderson and Fred Peterson Met Death While Working for Fleming Lumber Company on Wearyman Creek
An electrical storm which passed over the mountains east of Red Cliff last Friday afternoon was the cause of the death of two lumbermen working for the Fleming Lumber & Mercantile Co., Gust Anderson and Fred Peterson, who were instantly killed by lightning.
These men, with others, were working skidding logs in the timber at the sawmill on Wearyman creek, when a storm accompanied by rain came up suddenly. These two men sought shelter from the rain under a big spruce tree, Anderson standing on one side of the tree and Peterson on the other side, when the tree was struck by lightning and both men killed by the same stroke.
Both men have been employed by the Fleming company off and on for the past eight years, Anderson most of the time since he came to this country from Sweden. Peterson had worked on various ranches in this neighborhood and was known to many people around Eagle.
Peterson was about fifty-one years of age, and while none of his relatives have been located, it is thot [sic.] that he has kin folks in this country. Anderson was only thirty-five years old, and his parents and other relatives are all residents of Sweden and he was planning to visit them this fall.
Both were steady workers and good lumbermen, whose services were highly prized by the lumber company which had employed them for so long a time. Peterson was a member of Red Cliff Lodge No. 18, I.O.O.F., and the burial services at the cemetery were under the auspices of that order at Red Cliff Sunday afternoon. The services were in charge of Undertaker Aaron Graham from Red Cliff.
The storm which caused these two men's death was of short duration, but the electrical discharge was very heavy while it lasted, many trees in the forest in the near vicinity of the scene of the tragedy being struck and shattered by the lightning. Gunter Berg was working with the unfortunate men at the time, but he took shelter from the storm under a skidway nearby and was unharmed.
