March 11, 2007

Struck by Lightning 1914

I am now reverting back a few years to relate a few experiences, which I had while working on Father’s farm. I was about nineteen years of age. It was a late spring morning I had been plowing only a short time when a storm approached. As it seemed to appear very light, I paid little attention to it. And kept on plowing, going around a land with a single bottom plow and three horses. I turned a corner and this headed me towards the storm. It soon began to rain very hard. At this moment I turned the three horses around to have their backs to the storm and I squatted down in front of one of the horses to keep out of some of the rain. I stepped away from the horse and back about even with the horse’s hips.

The next thing I knew, I felt myself waking up as if I had been asleep and I layed my head down again and again. I awoke, and this time I felt numb and cold. Looking around I realized the horses and I had been struck by lightning. The three horses had fallen down away from where I was standing and I fell back with my head in the mallboard of the plow. The only horse that seemed to move after they fell was the one nearest to me. The lightning struck me in the left temple, then passed down onto my shoulder making a red streak from the shoulder down my left arm. I walked about a mile to the nearest neighbor. He took me home to Preston where I rested for a few days, nursing an eye that was damaged some. I was then ready to work again. I always felt thankful to the Lord for giving me the urge to get up from in front of that horse even though it had not entirely quit raining when I moved out, for it would have meant sudden death if I had stayed.

Alfred Kern – Preston, Idaho (Paul's grandfather)


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