The Sumter Banner

TERRIBLE STROKE OF LIGHTNING.—We regret to learn that Warren Cooley, of this city, was instantly killed by lightning, on Tuesday morning last, at Peoria, Wyoming County. The deceased, Francis Cooley, was standing in his store, filling a camphine can, when the lightning entering at the back of the building, struck him near the head and passed out through his heel entirely stripped him of his clothes, and causing instant death. The camphine was also inflamed, and when Mrs. Cooley entered the room; hardly a moment having elapsed; the deceased was standing upright against the wall enveloped in a sheet of flame.

The part of the building where the lightning entered; was used as a store room for scythes and other agricultural implements, which were thrown in all directions: Mrs. Cooley and her sister were sitting at the time, about a table, in a room over the store; and the top of the table was separated from its legs in an instant. Two persons were in the store at the time; one; a young man standing near the door, was tossed into the street, a distance of nearly twenty feet; the other, a lady was prostrated and rendered senseless; but neither were seriously injured. The deceased was about 30 years of age, and married, but without children.—Utica Herald.