The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-08-14
KILLED FROM A CLEAR SKY.
An Extraordinary Death from, lightning IN Io,
ia.

An Extraordinary Death from. lightning in Eo,ro
| Sioux City Ua) Journal.
| While the thunder storm of yesterday
| afternoon was raging at distance of ap
parently a couple of miles from this
place, a singular freak of nature took
place in the striking by lightning of the
| depot, and the striking and killing,
subsequently. of J. b: Boyer, the post
| master and blacksmith of this place.
At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, at
| which time not q cloud obscured the
sky overhead or stood between the sun
and the town, a terrible flash of light
ming followed by deafening peal of
thunder, struck the wires of the tele-
graph Office and set it on fire. The
damage done to the Geographic ap-
paratus was most complete, the wires
being torn to pieces and the different
instruments being almost without ex-
ception distorted and broken and com
pletely wrecked. Immediately after
the stroke John Il. Boyer, who was in
his shop at the time, ran out in the
street toward the depot, where some
boys had been playing. He approached
them rapidly and said, "Why boys, I
thought some of you had been struck.
was guite frightened on account of
you" He evidently had it in his mind
that the terrible shock might have
frightened his family, as he started
toward his home Immediately. When
within about so yards of tie house,
from the front window of which his wife
was an1iously watching his approach,
another vivid flash of lightning dazzled
the eyes of all, and ere the thunder had
ceased rolling, the naked body of the
unfortunate man was seen to be lying
kha otar. <,f
people, among them his wife, rushed to
the spot, and so horribls was the situa-
ton that it was not until he had been
carried to the house that a full ap-
probation was had of the terrible death
which nature had inflicted upon him.
An examination of the body, from which
every vestige of clothing, not excluding
even pair of cowhide boots, had been
instantly torn, showed that the subtle
and terribly fatal fluid had first struck
him on the top of his head, whence,
though the skull was left apparently in
tact, the hair had been burned off for
the space of the size of a silver dollar.
Thence the fluid had run down the side
of the face, as was shown by clearly
cut track to the shoulder, and thence to
the heart, where it apparently had
spread all over the body. The terrible
power of the fluid was shown by the
presence in the ground, on the spot
where the unfortunate mans body had
been picked up, of hole eight feet
deep by actual measurement. The
clothing of the deceased was found to
have BEEN shredded, and when first
discovered was on fire, while the silver
watch he carried had been driven into
the ground, and when lifted up, it was
found that the works had been fused
into a lump of shapeless metal. The
scene at the house of the deceased who
leaves a wife and three children to
mourn his loss, was painful beyond
power of words to describe, and those
who had been led to the spot through
curiosity could not remain. The affair
has created the profoundest sensation
in the town, where the deceased was
beth loved and revered by all who knew
him in either public or private life.