Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-01-06
HERDS DARING DEED
Nebraskan Fireman Who Saved
 Child's Life.
GRABBED BOY FROM ENGINE PILOT

George .POell, Who Was F1rst to
 Receive Nations Gold Life Saving Medal, Threw Him From the Track, but Was Himself Caught by the Locomotive and Badly Injured. George Poell of Grand Island, Neb., | the fireman on the St. Joseph and Grand Island railroad who recently re- ceived a letter from President Roose- welt notifying him that he had been awarded a gold medal for saving the life of child, thereby nearly losing his own, has told in his own words the sto- E " of his deed of heroism. Many of the details of his heroic act were recently told for the first time, says special dispatch from Grand Island, Neb., to 1, the Chicag go Tribune. E ..r i MT. Poell lives with his wife and her mother in a modest little home pur- chased wholly from the proceeds of the /. sale of his photograph and of the child he rescued. The photographs were sold .. by the rescued child's father.
 ' The people of the county also showed their admiration for MT. Poell by elect ing him county clerk, an office which < pays $1,5OO year. MT. Poell was un- - known in the (HalD county, and his sole ! campaign issue was his rescue of the child. + The child whose life was saved by ] Mir. Poeil in so daring a manner was i Paul Ussary. the two-and-a- -half-year- | old son of John Ussary, the station | agent at Powell, Neb. On June 26 last i the child was seen on the track ahead | of a train which was running at rate 1 of thirty miles an hour. The train
 could not be stopped in time, and MT. 1 Poell climbed out of his cab. crawled to l the locomotive pilot, snatched the child
 from certain death and threw it to one
 side of the track. In doing so he slip ped and fell. He was caught either un- der the pilot or the wheel of the engine truck and was dragged 300 feet, bump i ing over the ends of the ties. His right
 foot was torn off at the ankle, both
 arms were broken and his flesh fright
 fully torn and bruised.
 Poell was conscious when picked up
 but his first thought seemed to be for
 the child. At his request Brakeman
 EverhaEt immediately ran back 130
 feet from where the fireman lay to find
 the child. He had only slight contu-
 sion on the head and almost immedi-
 ately began to cry He was quickly re- 1 stored to his mother.
 Talking the other day of his thrilling experience, MT. Poell called attention
 to the fact that in every account so far as published it had been stated that l he thought of his little brother at home ! at the time.
 l II don't know where the newspapers
 got that" said Mir. Poell. Though have little brother at the old home in
 Hanover, just didn't happen to think
 of him. In fact. there wasn't much time to think. We were rounding a
 curve at pretty good rate and on a
 down grade with heavy train. Sud
 denly the engineer put on the emergen- i cy brake. I looked out ahead. There
 was a child on the track. The little 1 fellow seemed to have heard us and in his childish way appeared to turn part { ly around and then toddle off straight
 ahead of the engine, as if to run away l from us and beat us.
 "The engineer could not leave his
 post. I saw at once that we could not ! stop the train in time. I can still see those little blond curls bobbing up and ] down. Something told me I must run out, get on the pilot and sweep him off the track, and-well, that was the only thing there was 10 do. In some way slipped. got caught just below the cyl
 finder. was dragged quite a distance
 and then dropped"
 Mrs. Poell is as proud of her husband
 as she we'll may be- She shows the
 shoe which Mir Poell had on the miss
 ing foot at the time and explained. the
 light of admiration beaming in her
 eyes:
 Mrs. Cssary has the handkerchief and cap George wore at the time, but
 she refused to give them up. saying she
 would not part with them for the
 world" Mir and Mrs Cssary were in { Grand Island to visit the Poell family as soon as MT. Poell had sufficiently
 recovered. and. as may he imagined,
 the strongest ties of friendship have 1 benn formed between the families. Mir. | Jssary. a ilan of humble means. has
 done all that he could do to aid the | family of his henefactor
 The medal is given to Mir Poell by | the interstate commerce commission and is the first to be awarded under
 the recent act of congress authorizing
 the giving of medals for the saving of ! life on railroad trains or tracks.