About 2 p.m. on Christmas Day, 1896, Doctor Hoeltge and his sister, Mrs. Schultze, went out for an afternoon ride in a horse and buggy.  About 3 p.m., they had reached Vine Street and Clifton Avenue and, while crossing the street, one of the horse’s shoes became fastened in the cable slot and the animal fell to the street.  Two young men came to assist the elderly doctor, but when they unhitched the horse, the horse started to back and turned the vehicle over against a telegraph pole, throwing out both occupants.  Dr. Hoeltge was thrown against the pole and was seriously injured about the head.  Mrs. Schultze sustained a slight bruise of the nose.  And the horse bolted down Vine Street toward McMicken.

Officer Klusman was standing on the rear platform of a Vine street cable car on his way to report for duty at the Bremen Street Station.  The car was probably twenty feet from McMicken Avenue when he saw the horse running at breakneck speed.  Patrolman Klusman leapt from the car to stop the horse.  He suffered fatal injuries in doing so.  Other than Dr. Hoeltge in the initial accident, no one else was injured.

Patrolman Klusman was survived by his wife, Mary (31), and four children; Helen M. (7), Edward Louis (5), Ethel M. (2), and Elmer J. (10 mos.).  When Sergeant Love went to their Walnut Hills home to notify his wife, he found the children playing on the floor with their new Christmas toys and lost the nerve to tell her.  Instead, he helped her ready herself to go to the hospital, but on the way a newspaper reporter told her of the death.  Mary died 28 years later in 1924.

This was not Patrolman Klusman’s first act of meritorious conduct.  His name was first scrolled on the Roll of Honor on January 29, 1887.  On January 2, 1897, Patrolman Klusman was posthumously awarded the Henshaw Medal for Valor – one of only five such medals awarded.  It was presented to his seven-year-old son, Louis Edward Klusman.  It is now on display at the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.

If you have further information, artifacts, or pictures of this officer, please contact the Museum Director at Director@GCPHS.com.