>From The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser, 9 March 1882 -- TAMWORTH. (Tamworth News of Tuesday) A sad and painful accident happened on Saturday morning last, about six a.m. at Mr. W. Coulton's farm, near Manilla. During the threshing season, it is customary for the neighbouring farmers to assist each other, and for this purpose a young fellow named James Ahern, son of Mr. W. Ahern, of Dead Horse Gully, was on top of the threshing-machine used. Some sheaves of wheat were being thrown up, and on to one of these "young Jim," as he is familiarly called, placed his right foot, which slipped into the machine together with the sheaf of wheat. The sudden jerk thus occasioned caused the belt to slip off the wheel, or the accident might have been attended with more disastrous results. As it was, his right leg, up to the shin bone, was completely smashed. He was brought into Tamworth the same day, where he was attended to by Drs. White and Frean. They decided that amputation of the injured limb would be necessary in order to save the young fellow's life, and this operation was successfully performed on Sunday morning. From the time of the accident up to the time the limb was amputated--twenty-four hours--the poor fellow suffered intense agony, but immediately the operation was performed relief came to him. On making enquiries this morning, we leam that he is progressing as favourably as can be expected. To show the serious nature of the accident, and to give an idea of the suffering that must have been endured, we may mention that portions of the toes and the shin bones were afterwards picked out of the machine. ------------------------------------------------ Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954 http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home Aherns in Australian Records http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~aherns/ahcrim.htm ------------------------------------------------