[Table of Contents]

C. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT 1890s CASUALTIES

The following figures and tables summarize specific information on the casualties detailed in section 3B. These include all cases regardless of the type of activity, location, or incident.

Shelter taken by people

Mention was sometimes made in Kretzer (1895) that the lightning victim specifically did or did not seek shelter. These cases were counted separately, and are summarized in Table 17.

TABLE 17. Shelter taken by lightning victims in the 1890s.
  Deaths Injuries Events
Under trees 35 14 18
No shelter taken 10 12 10
Barn/cow shed 8 2 5
Outhouse 1 3 1
Under metal 1 2 1
Under rock 1 1 1
House 1 0 1
Under wagon 1 0 1
Doorway 0 5 3
Unknown/not reported 319 627 378
Total 377 666 419

Transportation

When mentioned in Kretzer (1895), the mode of transportation of a lightning victim was counted separately (Table 18).

TABLE 18. Transportation being taken by lightning victims in the 1890s.
  Deaths Injuries Events
Pulled by animals 19 13 20
On an animal 11 3 13
Railroad/trolley car 1 1 2
Freighter 0 5 1
Unknown/not reported 346 644 383
Total 377 666 419

Animals nearby

When mentioned in Kretzer (1895), the presence of animals near a lightning victim was counted separately (Table 19). The large number of casualties involving horses is evident. A total of 26% of all deaths and injuries occurred when horses were near, showing their prevalence in the 1890s.

TABLE 19. Animals near lightning victims in the 1890s.
  Deaths Injuries Events
Horses 42 230 52
Cattle/livestock 2 3 3
Mules 2 0 2
Horse and cattle 1 2 2
Chickens 1 0 1
Dogs/pets 1 0 1
Oxen 1 0 1
Unknown/not reported 327 431 357
Total 377 666 419

Gender

The gender of lightning victims is usually in the verbal narratives of Kretzer (1895). The numbers are listed in Table 20. The category of "Male and female" indicates that at least one male and at least one female was mentioned in the same entry in Kretzer (1895).

TABLE 20. Gender of lightning victims in the 1890s.
  Deaths Injuries Casualties
Male 257 198 455
Female 48 71 119
Male and female 47 315 362
Unknown 25 82 107
Total 377 666 1043

 

 

D. 1890s DAMAGES

Many of the entries in Kretzer (1895) were in florid or quaint language by today's standards. Nevertheless, there was enough information to categorize many damage entries (Tables 21 and 22). Some of the 894 entries in Kretzer describe more than one object that was impacted on the same date or in the same region, while other entries include no damages at all. Each description of a damaged object is listed separately in these tables. Comments on some entries follow:

Animals

Horses account for more than half of the animals that were killed or injured by lightning in the 1890s dataset. Nearly all of the other cases include cattle in various situations.

Dwellings

Distinction was made in the listing between dwellings that caught fire and those that did not. In most 1890s cases, the dwellings caught fire and many were destroyed. If there was no fire mentioned in the entry, then it was assumed that damage occurred but no fire was involved.

Oil

This category includes oil, petroleum, and natural gas tanks, batteries, and storage tanks.

Transportation

Transportation consisted of railroads, wagons, and water craft at this time.

TABLE 21. Frequency of lightning damages in the 1890s by major category.
Category Events Percent
Animals 111 26
Businesses 47 11
Churches 20 5
Dwellings 84 20
Farm 112 27
Oil/gas 3 1
Public facilities 7 2
Transportation 14 3
Utilities 12 3
Miscellaneous 10 2
Total 420  

 

TABLE 22. Details of lightning damages in the 1890s.
Category Events
Animals

    Horses

 63

    Cattle/livestock

 13

    Horses and cattle

 9

    Cattle killed near wire fence

 7

    Mules

 6

    Horses and mules

 4

    Sheep

 3

    Horses and cattle killed near wire fence

 2

    Bald eagle

 1

    Cats

 1

    Horses and bulls

 1

    Mules, horses, hogs

 1
Total 111
Businesses

    Building/business

 12

    Store

 10

    Factory

 7

    Mill

 6

    Hotel/motel

 4

    Bar/saloon

 2

    Warehouse

 2

    Brewery

 1

    Freight house

 1

    Lumber yard

 1

    Storeroom

 1
Total 47
Churches 20
Dwellings

    Minor damage/no fire

 21

    Destroyed/damaged-fire unknown

 18

    Heavy damage/no fire

 18

    Destroyed by fire

 15

    Minor damage/fire

 8

    Heavy damage/fire

 3

    Apartment damaged by fire

 1
Total 84
Farm

    Barn and contents destroyed

 75

    Barn destroyed

 18

    Barn damaged

 7

    Stable

 6

    Wheat/straw stacks

 3

    Hay

 2

    Grain elevator

 1
Total 112
Oil/gas 3
Public facilities

    School/college

 6

    Court house

 1
Total 7
Transportation

    Trolley/railroad

 4

    Buggy

 2

    Wagon

 2

    Boat

 1

    Freight cars

 1

    Rail car

 1

    Steamer

 1

    Switch tower

 1

    Truck

 1
Total 14
Utilities

    Telephone (lines or company)

 5

    Telegraph company/wires/poles

 3

    Power outage

 2

    Electric/power company (wires)

 1

    Electric street car outage

 1
Total 12
Miscellaneous

    Storage shed

 4

    Flagpole

 2

    Elevator

 1

    Guns

 1

    Powder magazine

 1

    Swords

 1
Total 10

The dollar amounts of some of these losses were noted in Kretzer (1895). No inflation corrections have been applied to the categories in Table 23; these values are as published by Kretzer (1895). The reported losses appear to include relatively expensive impacts for that time, rather than the lower amounts that could be expected.

TABLE 23. Frequency of lightning damages in the 1890s by range of dollar loss.
Damage range Number %
$ 0 -50 5 1
$ 50 -500 10 3
$ 500 -5,000 52 15
$ 5,000 -50,000 31 9
$ 50,000 -500,000 10 3
$ 500,000 -5,000,000 0 0
Unknown 249 70
Total 357  

 

Next: Chapter 4: Lightning Deaths, Injuries, and Property Damages in the 1990s