Culled by Judy Garrison From July 1912 issues of The Andes Recorder
100 Years Ago
Week In and About ANDES
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Events of a Week as Chronicled by the Man on the Street
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With commentary by Jim Andrews
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The old house called the “Beehive” situated on Isaac Fletcher’s farm a short distance from Shavertown on the Tremperskill, was destroyed by fire about 4 o’clock Tuesday afternoon. The house was occupied by Roy Davis and he lost most of his household goods. It is not known how the fire started as it is stated that the family had not had a fire in the stove since morning. The house will be remembered by many as the Bass Shaver place and was one of the landmarks of the valley and had practically out-lived its usefulness and was fast going to decay. The fire spread rapidly thru the building which was dry as tinder and scarcely a piece of the timber remains. Neither Mr. Fletcher or Mr. Davis carried any insurance.
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Attorney A. C. Fenton, of Margaretville, has purchased what is known as the James P. Race farm near Jacksonburg in the town of Andes. [Jim Andrews: Jacksonburg was located, I believe, between Union Grove and Arena. There was a bridge there called the Jacksonburg Bridge. It consisted of only a few buildings. Margaret Moshier would know more about it than I would.]
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Washington Whitcomb, employed by Lee J. Frisbee on the Hull farm, Perch Lake hill, five miles from Andes, was shocked by lightning during the storm last Thursday and was unconscious for about half an hour. The lightning struck the wagon house and Mr. Whitcomb, who was in the act of putting down a window in the rear of the building, received a portion of its force. The bolt left its mark on the right side of his body, extending from the shoulder down onto the leg. The upper part of the mark, which was the width of two fingers, was a deep red while down on the leg only the hair was singed. When he regained consciousness he smelled smoke and tried to get up, but found his entire right side paralyzed. He finally succeeded in getting to the door and call for help. His wife and other members of the family hurried to the wagon house and found the lightning had set fire in a case fastened to the side of the building, and in which tools were kept. By the use of water the fire was put out but the tools are probably nearly all ruined as the electricity had drawn out the temper. Mrs. William Hull who was on the porch at the house, was knocked down by the same bolt and a lady boarder felt a tingling in the foot and on removing her shoe and stocking a red streak was revealed on the ankle.
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It is supposed that the bolt struck the lightning rod and being more than it could carry part of it went into the building. The rod was split open for some distance and badly burned. The place where the tools was kept was against the outer wall directly back of where the lightning rod went down to the ground.[JA: People didn’t get out much back then and everyone would have known these people and, aside from being concerned about their well-being, were also curious about all the very numerous “details.” I’m sure writing like this sold papers!]
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During a thunderstorm that passed over Andes between 2 and 3 o’clock Sabbath morning the barn of J. V. McQueen, in lower Gladstone Hollow, was struck by lightning and totally destroyed. Mr. McQueen was awakened by the light from the burning building as was also the nearest neighbor, Barry Shaver and the barn was then entirely enveloped in flames. The effort of those who gathered was put forth in saving the house which stood only a short distance from the doomed barn. The intense heat scorched the house considerably and it caught fire several times but the flames were put out. Pieces of burning shingles were carried as far as Barry Shaver’s. Fortunately all the haying machinery was out of the barn and Mr. McQueen had his horses turned out in the pasture. About two tons of old hay was burned and also buggy, grain cradle, cutter and other implements. Mr. McQueen had been doing the haying on the Thos H. Liddle place and no new hay had yet been put in his own barn. Altho old the building served well the purpose. The barn is one of the landmarks of the town, but the date when it was erected goes back farther than runneth the memory of man. It is supposed to be at least 75 or 80 years old and probably was built by William Telford.
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The farm house of John Dickman on Dingle Hill was struck by lightning about 3 o’clock Sabbath morning and slight damage done. After an exceedingly hard clap of thuneder [sic] Mrs. Dickman got up to put the windows down and on entering the room occupied by Margaret Muir discovered the bed on fire. The blaze was very small and was easily put out. Investigation showed that the bolt had struck the roof and torn off some shingles and then going down the partition between two bedrooms ripped off the baseboard and set the bed on fire. A hole was burned in the sheet and also in the feather bed. The two Dickman boys were in a bed against the partition in the room adjoining but neither they or Miss Muir were injured.
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Wednesday a ball of fire entered the house of Isaac Samuels thru an open door and went out thru a window glass leaving a hole as if made by a bullet. Lightning also struck at the cemetery.
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JA: Lightning was greatly feared at the turn of the century—especially before Andes had any serious fire protection. A lightning hit, especially far from town, meant certain ruin to a home or a livelihood. At that time, with many farm buildings relatively new and in somewhat open areas (trees having been cleared for the construction of the buildings) the buildings were left as high-point targets for lightning strikes. Farmers’ homes and barns were strung with lightning rods which supposedly and hopefully grounded the buildings and would attract any lightning hits to the rods on the roof, transfer the charge down the wires strung at the sides of the buildings and into the ground. As is seen in the above articles, the rods didn’t always do the job adequately. My grandfather, Karl McCune, always worried about his barn in Shavertown and was very quick to shut the barn doors in the event of a thunderstorm. He was afraid that the draft being drawn through the barn would attract lightning. John Fowler, Marguerite Fowler’s father, always stayed alert during thunderstorms and sat in the farmhouse dining room window and watched the barn, figuring that if it got hit he could get to it in time to save the building. The State Road farm is now owned by Joe Eisele, and ironically enough, several years ago the same barn that John Fowler watched so carefully was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.~