Jesse Locey
Cincinnati Enquirer, 23 July 1895, page 6
STRUCK DEAD
The tidings of a fatality, which occurred Saturday at Grant's
Lick, a hamlet 20 miles south of Newport, were received yesterday morning.
Jesse Locey, a farm hand, 24 years of age, was the victim. With his
brothers, Edward and Daniel Locey, he was topping out a stack of hay.
A walnut tree was utilized as a center pole for the haystack and Jesse Locey with his brother Dan, were on top of the stack. Jesse was chopping the limbs of the tree with a hand ax. Suddenly there was a flash of lightening, followed by a peal of thunder. Jesse threw up his arms and tumbled to the ground dead. he had been struck by the lightning's flash, the first of subsequent electrical storm in that vicinity.
He was removed to the house and after his clothes were removed, the mark of the lightning's course on his body was plainly discernible. A dark red streak extended from the left side of his forehead diagonally across his body and down his right leg to his foot. A boot that he wore on his right foot was stripped off by the electric current and imbedded in the ground 60 feet away from where he was struck.
Daniel and Edward felt nothing of the shock, though both were within reaching distance of their brother when he received the lightning's force. Coroner Tingley received the first information of the fatality from an Enquirer reporter and it is not known whether an inquest was held by the Magistrate in that district. Ellis Yelton is the Justice there.
The funeral of the deceased was held Sunday, interment being in the cemetery surrounding the Baptist Church of Grants Lick.