The Evening Republican, Columbus, Indiana, Thursday, April 24, 1952, Page 1:

Dynamite Blast Injuries Fatal to Chas. Fodrea

Prominent Farmer Tells of Premature Explosion – Rite Saturday.

Charles G. Fodrea, 41, south of Azalia, died at 3:10 o’clock this morning at the county hospital of injuries received early Wednesday morning in a dynamite explosion.

Mr. Fodrea, a prominent farmer, was injured in the premature blast of a stick of dynamite while attempting to dynamite a section of ground to drain water from a farm field.
He was injured about 7 o’clock and lay on the ground four hours, still conscious and attempting to attract attention of motorists passing on a nearby road.

Found by Wife.

Mr. Fodrea was found shortly after 11 o’clock by his wife, Mrs. Pauline Fodrea, and a neighbor, Joseph Lykins. They had gone in search of Mr. Fodrea after the wife became alarmed at his failure to return home.
He suffered chest and facial injuries and his right hand and part of his lower arm were badly mangled by the blast.

The accident occurred on farmland owned by Altus Newsom, east of Road 31 and south of Azalia. Mr. Fodrea farmed the property. The injured man was found lying about 50 feet from the hole in the ground made by the blast. He was about 150 yards from the Helt road, running east from Road 31. His truck was parked in a lane leading off the road.

Mr. Fodrea told a brother, William Fodrea, that the stick of dynamite went off as he attempted to tamp it into a hole in the ground. He was apparently bent over at the time and the charge smashed his right hand and struck him in the chest and face.

Mr. Fodrea said that while lying on the ground in the rain he attempted to attract attention of persons passing in cars on the Helt road, but none saw him.

Funeral Saturday.

Funeral services will be held for Mr. Fodrea at 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon at Azalia Friends church, conducted by Rev. Marshall Tolle and Rev. J. R. Walter. Burial will be made in Garland Brook cemetery. The casket will remain at the Hathaway funeral home until time of church services, but the casket will not be open.

Mr. Fodrea was a native of the Azalia community and resided there most of his life. He graduated from Columbus high school in 1928 and was a member of the high school basketball and baseball teams.
He was born Feb. 22, 1911, son of Elias and Ida Graham Fodrea and was a member of the Azalia Friends church, the Farm Bureau, Elizabethtown Conservation club and the Azalia men’s quartet.

Survivors include the wife; two daughters, Deanna May and Connie Elaine; the father, Elias Fodrea; 10 sisters, Miss Bessie Fodrea, Miss Grace Fodrea and Miss Hazel Fodrea, all of Columbus; Mrs. Fred Fink, Ledoga; Mrs. Harold Barbour, Route 3; Mrs. Lee Flanigan, Greencastle; Mrs. Francis Jordan, Seymour; Mrs. Robert Simpson, west of Columbus; Mrs. Jesse Gannon, of Batesville, and Mrs. Basil Malson, of Syracuse, N. Y., and a brother, William Fodrea of near Azalia.

The mother and a sister preceded him in death.