Were Thrilling Huge Crowd at Labor Day Celebration
The Labor Day celebration here came to a sad ending about 4:30 p.m. when "Daredevil" Morton Frenck, who was the stunt man in the airplane, received injuries from which he died at 7:15 p.m.
Frenck, with the pilot Arthur Chester, were up in the air about 2,000 feet and were firing aerial bombs and had lighted the fuse to the last bomb, which was the largest one they had fired. The bomb was placed in the tube from which it is supposed to drop into the air, after it is lighted, but in some unaccountable manner it stuck in the tube, and both Frenck and Chester saw it and tried to dislodge it, but couldn't so they leaned out as far as possible in an attemp to not get hurt when the explosion came. The crowd on the grounds saw something was wrong when the bomb exploded and immediately the airplane started for the landing field. The explosion terribly mutilated Frenck in the bowels and a large piece of the shell was imbedded in his liver. As soon as the plane came to the ground the men were rushed to the doctor's office. It was evident from the first that Frendk could not recover, but Chester was not so badly hurt and will recover.
When the explosion came Frenck was in the cockpit. After the explosion Pilot Chester exercised rare presence of mind. Although suffering intense pain and seeing that his gasoline tank was blown to pieces and he had no gas, he knew that if he allowed his plane to alight on the grounds, many people would probably be killed; he immediately turned the machine toward the landing field, allowed it to settle slowly to the ground and he made a perfect landing.
When the machine alighted, those there immediately ran to the machine and found both men in terrible agony. Frenck was bleeding badly and knew that his death was only the matter of a short time and bade his friends goodbye. He remained conscious to the last, passing away with relatives and friends at his bedside.
Morton Frenck was an army aviator and entered the service when but 15 years old, being the youngest aviator in the service. After leaving the army at the close of the war he associated himself with Arthur Chester and has been thrilling thousands of people since with his daredevil stunts in the air. He was fearless and put on acts that few men in that line would attenpt. He was a young man that made many friends wherever he went. He was purely a Lake county product, having been born and raised in Hammond. Two weeks ago he made a drop from his parachute into Fancher lake in the Fair Grounds at Crown Point. He is survived by his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Frenck; two brothers, Wilson and Fred Frenck, all of whom are well known people in the county, residing at 412 Sumner Blvd., Hammond.
Funeral services will be held in Hammond under the auspices of the Legion. Both Lowell and Crown Point posts will participate in the services.
Arthur Chester is a stunt flyer of ability and together with Frenck put on some wonderful stunts. They put on stunts that even frightened the best of aviators.
Arthur Chester is badly bruised from the flying schrapnel and an X-Ray picture shows that there is still a piece in his leg that will have to be taken out. Chester is well known to our people having been here two years ago. Chester is staying at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Herman, where the crew with the airplane were staying while here.
The crew with the machine were: Morton Frenck, 21, Hammond; Arthur Chester, 22, Downers Grove; N.J. Scatena, 22, Hammond; Ben Grew, Chicago. All four of the boys are ex-soldiers of the World war. All the boys are are gentlemen and are finding a hospitable people, who grieve with them in the loss of their comrade.
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