Hi Albert and listers: Coming up shortly, when I finish typing it, its rather lengthy, will be a brief early history of the Toowoomba Hospital from around 1850 to 1890s. but in the meantime, Albert, I have located the following from the newspaper of the day, The Toowoomba Chronicle Saturday 25th July 1885: FATAL ACCIDENT AT MIDDLE RIDGE: We regret to learn that a rather sad accident which terminated fatally, happened to a resident of Middle Ridge, named Gustav Gruhlke, on Saturday last. The unfortunate man was bringing a load of straw to town and when near the residence of Mr Beh's, he found that the load had shifted to one side. he stopped the horse, and equalised the balance of the load. After shifting the straw, he proceeded to pull the rope tight on the straw, and while in the act of doing this, the rope broke and he fell backwards on to the ground. As he appeared to be severely injured, and unable to move, a little daughter of his, who happened to be with him, ran up to Mr Beh's house, and Dr Garde was immediately sent for. Upon his arrival the doctor examined Gruhlke, and found he had sustained a severe nervous shock {Albert tells the story that Gustav his grandfather fell onto a pitchfork and pierced his spinal cord, but no mention of that in this report}. The doctor was, however, hopeful that the shock would pass away and the man recover. Such hope was, however, not destined to be realised. At first he seemed to improve, but on Monday, it became evident that his case was hopeless and on that evening he expired. the deceased was 37 years of age, and leaves a widow and a family of four young children to mourn the loss of their provider. He was an industrious and sober man, and was not many years in the colony. As himself and family were only beginners in the way of farming, the circumstances of the widow and children are in anything but a good condition, and as Mrs Gruhlke is not in the best of health at present, she is precinded from earning her living. This seems a fair case for the exercise of charity, and we are glad to learn that some steps are being taken to assist the bereaved widow and orphans. Bye for now, Jim