John William Townsend (1916)
RANKIN, TOWNSEND
Posted By: Treva Patterson
Date: 9/5/2007 at 19:32:46
The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, July 19, 1916
Page 1, Column 2LIGHTNING KILLS JOHN TOWNSEND
Monroe Township Farmer Killed In Field – STANDING BY MACHINE
Bolt Stuns McVegh, Farmers Lose Horses in Monday’s Storm
John Townsend, a young farmer living near Monroe Center, was instantly killed by lightning during the rain Monday afternoon. Mr. McVegh, who was sitting on a binder near him was knocked off the machine but was not injured seriously.
Mr. Townsend was helping McVegh harvest his oats. When the storm came up Monday afternoon they stopped cutting. McVegh was sitting on the machine and Townsend was standing on the ground near him. While they discussed the advisability of unhitching the team and going to the barn, Townsend placed two sheaves of oats over his head to keep off the rain. He had hardly done so when the lightning struck him.
The bolt hit him full on top of the head and tore his hat to pieces. The Lightning ran down both sides of his body but the discoloration stopped on his breast. Mr. McVegh was badly stunned but managed to pick himself up an stop the horses.
Townsend was thirty 30 years old and leaves a wife and three children. The family came from Knoxville three years ago.
_______________________The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, August 2, 1916
Page 4JOHN WILLIAM TOWNSEND
John William Townsend was born near Knoxville, Iowa, Sept. 9, 1885 and departed this life at his home near Lorimor, Iowa, July 17, 1916, aged 30 years, 10 months, and 8 days.
On Jan. 22, 1908, he was united in marriage to Echo V. Rankin, who with his three small children: Glen, aged 7 years, and Arthur and Edith, aged 5 years, survive him to mourn their great loss. He is also survived by his aged parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Townsend and three sisters.
In December, 1902, he united with the Methodist Episcopal church and has lived a faithful Christian life. He met his death in an unusual manner, seeming as if God called him by a fiery bolt from His sky.
Funeral services were conducted from Zion M. E. church near Knoxville by Rev. Roy N. Spooner of Lorimor and interment was in the Zion cemetery. The tremendous crowd attending the service bespeaks the love and esteem in which Mr. Townsend was held.
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