News has reached Coldwater of the unfortunate accidents which occurred at the Bowlby ranch in Kiowa-co. during the rain and hail storm on last Friday evening when the unseen but powerful forces of electricity made sad havoc. The wheat harvesting crew hurriedly drove in from the field when the storm came up and while at the barn and about to unhitch his team of fine black horses W. H. Wilbur was struck by lightning and shocked to such an extent that it was thought for some time that he could not recover. He was unconscious for several hours. It had commenced to hail vigorously and some of the hands scrambled under the header barge. Mr. Wilber was standing at the head of his horses holding them by the bridles when an electrical current struck him apparently on the right hand, passing in a band about an inch wide in a zig-zag manner over his arm, across his back and down his left leg, tearing almost to shreds his clothing and his left shoe. His eyes were badly injured. At last report Mr. Wilbur was slowly improving.From Mr. Wilber's body the electricity passed to the horses, one of which was killed instantly and the other so badly injured that it did not live many hours. But saddest of all, the electrical current before spending its force caused the death of one young man, Ira Hammond, aged about 16, whose home was in or near Mullinville. Young Hammond and a few others were under the header barge. The current of electricity evidently passed through Hammond's body. No marks were left. He simply sank to the ground dead. The other members of the crew were stunned but not seriously injured. Grant Bowlby also had two good horses killed during the same storm. W. H. Wilber, who was injured, is a brother-in-law of J. E. Ham of this city.
Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site! Shirley noted that "Wilbur" was also spelled "Wilber" in this article. The spellings are reproduced here as they appeared in the original publication.
This RootsWeb website is being created by HTML Guy Jerry Ferrin with the able assistance of many Contributors. Your comments, suggestions and contributions of historical information and photographs to this site are welcome. Please sign the Guest Book. This page was last updated 25 June 2004.