Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-08-08
MANY Struck down
Lightning Visits a Quaker
town, N. j., Church.
At Least Twenty Persons Frustrated
and Rendered Unconscious A
Few Seriously Injured-Clothing
Torn from a Man and a Woman's
Corset Steels Melted.

Pennington, N. j., Aug. 5.-The
words of a fervent benediction had
scarcely left the lips of Rev. Mr.. Bow
man, in the Methodist church at Quaker
town, seven miles above here, yesterday
afternoon when there came binding
flash of lightning and terrifying burst
of thunder that all but wrecked the lit
tie building The bolt entered the
church and injured score of people,
several of them probably fatally. The
list of those most seriously injured fol
lows: James Hoff, Minnie Frace, Miss
K. Hoffman, Asa Bannon, the sexton,
and Mrs. Bowman, wife of the pastor.
The bolt seemed to enter the edifice by
the basement shooting up through the
floor and bursting with the force of a
huge cannon. Members of the congre-
cation who had started to leave or were
standing i'll groups conversing with each
other were thrown into a wild panic,
while at least twenty of them received
injuries more or less severe. Amid the
tumult of screaming women and crying
children, the groans of the injured there
was stampede of frightened horses
under the sheds outside. A number of
them broke their tethers and ran away,
wrecking the carriages to which they
were attached and dashing down sections
of fencing.
Pastor Bowman and scores of willing
hands were soon at work among the
stricken ones. A number of them were
unconscious and it was thought at first
they had been killed outright. They
were laid upon pew cushions. The par
sonage, which adjoins the church was
converted into hospital, all the beds
being pressed into service. Drs Snyder
of Quakertown and Frace of Clinton
quickly responded to calls upon them
and attended the sufferers.
Miss Minnie Frace was standing
close to the side wall of the vestibule
with her back toward the wall. The
bolt struck her on the back of the head.
1t passed around her body and down her
back and legs to the floor. Her cloth
ing was torn into shreds and stripped
from her. Even her shoes and stock
ings We're torn apart and away from her
body. So intense was the heat that her
watch guard was melted, and the time
piece looks as though it had gone through
furnace. 1t stopped at 1910, a grim
record of the cruel visitant. Miss Fraces
life is dispaired of. The burns on the
young woman's body were terrible. The
course of the fluid could be traced from
the time it entered her body until it left
it. There was II black streak showing
the course of the current.
Mrs. Bowman, who stood near Miss
Frace, was also thrown down by the ex-
plosion. Her hat was torn from her
head and a steel ripped clean out of her
corset. She is still unconscious from
the shock. All the clothing except the
upper undervest was torn from Sexton
Bannon, while his shoes looked as though
they had been run through corn shell
Ter, being literally cut to pieces. He is
suffering from the shock and can hardly
recover.
Examination of the building after the
excitement had subsided somewhat
showed that the bolt had struck an
outer wall, ran down to the basement,
sixty feet along the joists and shot up
through the floor like a huge bullet.
The large bell in the tower was loosened
from it's hangings and only slender
strip of scantling kept it from crashing
down upon the heads of scores of peo-
pie at the doorway.