HANTS, Robert Franklin
Date of death: 10 April 1971 Nineveh, Johnson County, Indiana
Franklin Daily Journal, April 12, 1971
NINEVEH
Nineveh farmer dies as tractor overturns
Robert F. Hants, 66, a farmer and lifelong resident of Nineveh, was killed Saturday afternoon in a farm tractor accident at his farm off old State Rd. 252, just west of Nineveh.
Johnson County sheriff's deputies said Hants was killed when his tractor flipped over and crushed him as he and a brother-in-law were attempting to pull out another tractor which had become stuck in mud.
Deputy sheriff Robert Wilson said Hants and Kenneth L. Browning, Nineveh, were on the tractors in a field about 400 yards behind the Hants farmhouse.
Browning was operating the smaller tractor which was bogged down in the mud. Hants was on a larger tractor attempting to pull out Browning's machine when his own tractor flipped backwards on him. Browning was not injured.
Browning and his son-in-law Larry Woodall, Franklin route three, and Woodall’s father were fishing in a lake only yards away when the tractor overturned. All attempted to rescue Hants from under the tractor, but the farmer was killed instantly, authorities said.
Deputy county coroners Dr. William Waymire and Paul DeBolt pronounced Hants dead at the scene of the accident.
Funeral services have been set for 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Vandivier-Parsley Funeral Home in Franklin. Calling hours are after 3 p.m. Tuesday and until time of services on Wednesday.
The Rev. David DeBoer of the Nineveh Christian Church will be in charge of services, and burial will be in the Nineveh Cemetery.
Mr. Hants was born July 25, 1904, in Nineveh Township, the son of Oscar and Minnie Coffman Hants. Educated in Nineveh, he married Gusta Brickey in 1941. She survives.
Also surviving are four sisters, Mrs. Kenneth Browning of Nineveh, Mrs. Kathryn Maley, Indianapolis, Mrs. Ethel Mohr, of New Castle, and Mrs. Leo Ware of Altamonte Springs, Fla., along with several nieces and nephews.
Mr. Hants was a member of the Nineveh Masonic Lodge (secretary), Nineveh Order Eastern Star, and was president of the Nineveh Cemetery Board at the time of his death. He also was a volunteer fireman in Nineveh Township.
Submitted by Mark Wirey