In the early days of mechanized farming, corn pickers made harvest work faster, but they also brought terrible new dangers into the fields.
Moving rollers, gears, and mud-soaked roads could turn an ordinary workday into a fight for survival.
In November 1922, Minnesota farmer Siver Lien learned this in the most brutal way when his hand became trapped inside a corn picking machine, leaving him with no choice but to free himself with his own pocket knife.
Hand is Crushed in Corn Picker
COMFREY, Minnesota. — Siver Lien, a farmer living east of Comfrey, had his arm amputated between the wrist and elbow at Loretto Hospital last week as the result of an accident in which he caught his hand in the rollers of a corn picking machine. At the time, his brother was with him and also a son of Charles Bernloehr.
It seemed impossible to release the crushed hand from the rolls and Lien was forced to take his pocket knife and cut his hand free from the gearing. He was removed to the house and a local physician summoned. The doctor’s car got stuck in the mud and when he finally arrived at the Lien home he found the victim fainting from the loss of blood and the shock.
After administering first aid, Lien was rushed to the Loretto Hospital at New Ulm where it was found necessary to amputate between the wrist and the elbow as the bones of the wrist were badly crushed. Lien was reported yesterday at the hospital to be recovering rapidly from the operation.
Source: New Ulm Review. New Ulm, Brown County, Minn. November 29, 1922.
