Storm of August 1881

from the New Jersey Mirror 17 Aug 1881:

A HEAVY SHOWER of wind and rain visited this vicinity shortly after five o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The day had been extremely hot, said to have been the hottest of the season, the mercury rising to 100 in the shade. The storm came up suddenly, the wind blowing a young hurricane, trimming dead limbs and some live ones from the trees and strewing the streets with them. The rain followed as suddenly and for some time the rain-fall was heavy, the lightning sharp and the thunder startling, indicating that the lightning had struck something near by. The shower was over in less than a half hour. Soon after the storm it was learned that the lightning had done fatal work on the road between Mount Holly and Lumberton.
It appears that just as the shower was approaching, Isaac Fenimore, living near Lumberton, drove to the Mount Holly depot for Mrs. Blanche Short, engaged as a domestic in the family, who was waiting to be conveyed to his residence. Mr. F. remarked that he thought they could get home before the shower, and they started. When within about a hundred yards of D. B. Coles' house, Mr. Fenimore noticed that the storm was gaining on him, and remarked, "We will have to turn into Coles' for shelter." The next that he remembers was recovering from what seemed like a deep sleep, and seeing his two horses lying in the road. It seemed very strange that the animals should fall on a level piece of ground, but tossing the lines to the young woman, he alighted and proceeded to the relief of the horses, only to find them dead. The truth then began to dawn on his mind, and looking into the wagon, he saw that the woman had fallen to one side, the little girl, who had been thrown to the bottom of the carriage, clamboring to her mother's lap and crying bitterly. He at once seized the child in his arms and started to Coles' for help, falling twice before reaching the house, and again falling when he reached the house, and again falling when he reached the kitchen door. Unfortunately there were no men about the house. The little girl was left with some women, while Mr. Fenimore returned to the scene of the accident, not yet being willing to believe the worst. He found no signs of life in either woman or horses; and he then started for Lumberton, where he procured assistance.
An examination of the scene indicated that the lightning first struck a fence, the pickets of which were torn and cut, passing thence to the wagon, breaking a post and cutting a hole in the curtain, striking the woman and passing to the horses. Mrs. Short's face and neck bore traces of the lightning, while Mr. Fenimore's left shoe was cut open and his foot and leg were burned. The escape of the gentleman from death seems miraculous, but that the little girl, seated between him and the mother, should escape without a scratch, seems stranger still. Mrs. Short, the deceased, was a widow, about 25 years of age, with the one child, aged about 3 years. They had lived with Mr. Fenimore seven weeks, and at the time of the sad occurrence were just returning from a visit to some relatives in Baltimore. Coroner Carr viewed the body, but deemed an inquest unnecessary and handed the body to Undertaker Keeler. Mr. Fenimore was in Mount Holly on Monday, and with the exception of a stiffness in the left leg, feels no bad results of the lightning. The little girl also complains of slight soreness, but otherwise is all right. The lightning visited other localities during the storm. On the farm occupied by Thomas Toy, on Wood Lane, two cows and a bull were killed; 20 sheep were killed near Vincentown; a large pine tree was split on B. F. Deacon's farm near Lumberton; and an untenanted house near Eayrestown, was completely shattered. The shops at Smithville were struck but no damage was done. The wind blew a chimney from a house at Smithville and one from a house at Jobstown. At Ellisburg three cattle belonging to J. Peters were struck and killed. The storm visited Philadelphia before venting its fury in this vicinity, where considerable damage was done in unroofing houses, breaking trees, &c. Later Long Branch came in for a blast, hundreds of peope being caught on the beach and getting soaked before the could reach shelter.