Enhanced Photo. Click for original photo by James Allen. |
Macon Weekly Telegraph (Georgia)
24 July 1893, pg. 1
Via GenealogyBank.
JOHN BURKE STRUCK DEAD.John's funeral took place at the Mulberry Street Methodist Church. "The church was filled until the aisles and vestibule were crowded with the friends of the deceased..." [Most Solemn Obsequies, Macon Telegraph (Georgia), 18 July 1893, pg. 6 - via GenealogyBank.] He rests in the Burke lot, Central Avenue Division, Rose Hill Cemetery. A granite obelisk marking the spot is not far from the entrance to the cemetery.
Awful Calamity at Cumberland Island During Yesterday's Heavy Thunder Storm.
IN THE VOLUNTEERS' CAMP
Alone in His Tent When the Bolt Fell. Death Was Instantaneous -- The Remains Arrived in Macon This Morning.
From the Telegraph, July 17.
Brunswick, July 16 (Special) -- At Cumberland Island about 2 o'clock, while the Macon Volunteers were preparing for dinner, a pretty hard thunder storm came up. Most of the members had left their tents and gone to the hotel. Mr. J. W. Burke, Jr. was among those left behind. A blast of lightning struck a tree in the midst of the tents. A few moments after a negro porter passed by the tent occupied by Mr. Burke and saw his head lying on the outside of the tent.
Death was Instantaneous.
He notified the members of the company and several physicians on the island were called in. They pronounced death instantaneous.
An examination showed that the lightning had struck him, coming up through the ground, tearing a shoe off one foot. Every hair on the body was singed and it has the appearance of being that of a much older man.
The Company Grief Stricken
The company is grief-stricken over the death of their comrade and accompanied the body to Brunswick, where Undertaker Moore prepared it for shipment on the 8:10 East Tennessee train. It is supposed that the lightning struck the centre pole of the tent and then passed through his body from the ground.
A gun in the next tent was torn literally to pieces...
(Photo by James Allen.) John W. Burke, Jr. June 18, 1869 July 16, 1893 To Live In The Hearts Of Those We Love Is Not To Die |
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