About a week before Christmas 1911, the editor of the Rogue River Courier and two of his reporters barely escaped a trampling inside their Grants Pass, Ore., newspaper office.
Editor E.G. Coutant was sitting at his desk near the office’s big plate glass front window when two horses pulling a wagon full of apples came crashing through. Coutant jumped for his life, the newspaper reported, saving him from being crushed, but he was showered as he rushed away by 200 square feet of heavy, jagged glass. The horses were also cut, splashing blood everywhere, making the scene look more gruesome than it was.
The two reporters’ desks were directly in the horse’s path, but they had left the room minutes before the crash, escaping certain injury. The horses belonged to the Rogue River Fruitlands Company that was delivering apples when the horses spooked and made a mad dash through the business district before crashing through the Courier's window.
The newspaper said it was miraculous no one was seriously hurt and the horses had only minor injuries in spite of the gory scene. The damage was estimated at $200.
Source: "Courier Business Office Wrecked." Rogue River Courier 22 Dec. 1911 [Grants Pass Oregon] : 1. Historic Oregon Newspapers. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
