Scott J. "Cupcake" Tebbe

It started out as a fun event to raise money for children's playground equipment.

Sunday's fourth annual St. Rose Tractor Drive drew more than 100 tractors pulling decorated wagons and trailers. They were loaded with festivalgoers making a poker run.

But an 18-year-old driving one of the tractors fell off on the outskirts of Jamestown. The tractor rolled over Scott J. "Cupcake" Tebbe and he died.

"It hurts," said Jeff Kampwerth of St. Rose, one of the organizers of the event. "It's a small town. We all know each other so well."

Tebbe graduated this year from Central High School in Breese and was an officer in the school's Future Farmers of America chapter. He was working at his family's farm and worked for Mid-West Drilling in Missouri.

Police said several people were injured.

More than 100 tractors, many of them antiques, were involved in the event. They pulled wagons and trailers filled with people, including babies. The wagons had home-made benches, old bus seats, picnic tables or lawn furniture on them to haul the festivalgoers. According to witnesses, one wagon was a double-decker; another had an agricultural watering trough jokingly referred to as a "Hoosier hot tub."

The tractors left at noon and paraded around the St. Rose area to various farms and farm-related business so participants could pick up playing cards in an effort to put together a winning poker hand. A flyer for the event stated the cost to enter was $20 per tractor, and $5 more for each additional poker hand.

Kampwerth said the St. Rose Development Club, a service group which sponsored the event and maintains a park in the unincorporated community, planned to put the proceeds toward playground equipment.

Dennis Sturgeon, a clerk at Little Rose's General Store, said the mood in town Monday morning was somber.

"You can tell something's wrong with the town," he said.

Sturgeon added, "It was a good event, benefited a good thing."

The Rev. Ed Schaefer, pastor at St. Rose Catholic Church for the past 13 years, said the community is tight-knit and deeply religious.

"There's not much you can say. Pray and hope the pain finally goes away," Schaefer said. "It's a test, that's for sure."

Schaefer said Tebbe's grandmother was the housekeeper at the church rectory when Schaefer came to St. Rose.

Poker runs are common in Clinton County. They often include stops at taverns and veterans clubs.

Jim Clanton, owner of the Pat's Place tavern in Jamestown, said he was at his home near the tavern Sunday evening and saw a few of the wagon-pulling tractors outside the bar. But he said Pat's Place was not an official stop on the poker run.

"I think it was around the six o'clock hour," Clanton said. "It wasn't a full line of a hundred-some tractors down there."

Clanton said he thinks some participants in the tractor event may have left the main group and gone their own way.

The poker run, which started at the park in St. Rose, was supposed to end there with music provided by a disc jockey.

Chief Deputy Mark Etter of the Clinton County Sheriff's Department said the tractor being driven by Tebbe was the only vehicle involved in the accident at Jamestown Road and Pierron Road. He was pulling a wagon with the tractor.

"He fell off and the tractor rolled over him. Do we know exactly what happened? Not really," Etter said. "For one reason or another, he didn't make the turn."

Etter said there were several people in the wagon, and some of them suffered injuries. Additional information was not available on the identities of the passengers or the extent of their injuries.

Etter said it's not yet clear why the group was in the Jamestown area. He said routine toxicology tests will be performed to determine if alcohol was a factor.