The longer I live, the more I realize how everyday life in South Dakota is directly affected by the weather. The most used apps on my phone have become the weather apps. As a farmer my hourly, daily, and weekly plans are made based on the forecast, and even though the forecast isn’t always accurate, we’d be really lost without it. I can’t imagine what life without modern weather forecasting would be like.
It’s really a luxury for us today and we probably don’t appreciate it, but it’s something the early farmers and ranchers of Edmunds County never had. If the pioneers in eastern Edmunds County on May 4, 1901 could have had a forecast for the day it might have made a difference, at least for two families. One of the most famous residents of Edmunds County was killed that day, along with two other local farmers. In 1901 there would not have been many or any trees, telephone or electric poles, tall buildings, or anything of height. So, a person on a horse out traveling or in a field would be the tallest object and subject to a lightning strike if a storm was to pop up.
Judge J.J. Healy who lived two miles west and one mile south of Mina was 40 years old and just returned from Washington DC. He was a lawyer, had been an Edmunds County judge, states attorney, elected representative to Pierre for a term, was the private secretary of US senator James Kyle, and was presently serving as statistician to the Senate in Washington DC. Some think that he personally with his speech giving ability, and quick wit swung the last election in favor of Senator Kyle and some saw him as a future Governor or Senator for the state of South Dakota. But Judge Healy loved his cows (perhaps his downfall) and after saving a cow stuck in the mud that day, he began to ride his horse home, but both were struck and killed by a bolt of lightning.
Healy wasn’t the only casualty. AJ Bachman, age 33 of Kent Township was returning from a trip to Mansfield when he too was caught in the storm and struck by lightning near Scatterwood Lake in southeast Edmunds.
The storm wasn’t finished leaving its deadly impact on Edmunds County as Fred Adam who had delivered a wagon load of wheat to Ipswich early that day was also struck and killed a few miles north of Ipswich. All three men were married and had young children. Bachman is buried in the middle of St. Herbert cemetery in Kent Township while Healy is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Aberdeen. Not much is known of Fred Adam except he was of German Russian decent and had a young family.
Statistically the odds of being struck by lightning today are less than 1 in a million and in 1900 it was about 6 in a million. Although farmers tend to bend every statistic in their favor when it comes to death, danger, and injury, it truly is historic to have three deaths in the same day in the same county in the same storm all caused by lightning. Today we get frustrated when the advance forecast isn’t accurate but the weatherman really does a pretty good job for the most part and definitely gives us an early warning to life threatening storms.
So, if things do happen in three’s, I’m praying for rain, less wind, and warmer temps!
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