SIX CHILDREN BURNED.

LIGHTNING DEMOLISHES A FARM HOUSE NEAR WHITING.

Six children were injured, one fatally, and a house werecked by a most peculiar and destructive freak of the storm last week two miles south of Whiting. The scene of destruction was on the ED BALLARD
farm at the home of HARVEY QUEEN. Lightning struck the house, but no fire was started, and the building collapsed as if blown up with dynamite.
Every window light and door was blown out and joists torn away and scattered over the field. The six children who were in the upper rooms were stunned and some were bruised in the debris.
VERNIE QUEEN, 15 years of age, was buried deep in the mass of ruins and when her body was recovered she was still alive, but cannot survive. One shoe was burned from her foot and the waistband of her skirt was burning when she was found. One of her legs was fractured. ADA QUEEN received a gash in the head and the others were more or less injured. The six children had been found by neighbors in the rooms below, and all were severely stunned and covered up in the debris of the wrecked building.

Sioux County Herald Orange City Iowa 1900-07-04
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!