Bloomington (Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana) Daily Telephone, June 20, 1928, pgs. 1 & 8. Note: Because of the length of the item and its being divided into sections with their own headings, I am dividing the posts into multiple items, using the sections and their headings. The newspaper story covers one full-page column on page 1 and the greater part of three full-page columns on page 8. WERE UNDER SMALL WILD CHERRY BUSH Six Workmen Gathered Under Limbs For Shelter Are Caught By Direct Hit - 4 Instantly Killed But Two Miraculously Escape. Three Other Workmen Witness Tragedy From Short Distance - Eye-Witness Tells Story to The Telephone - Funeral Arrangements. One of the most terrible tragedies in the history of Monroe county took place at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon when a bolt of lightning made a direct hit on a tree at the Indiana University water works reservation, two miles northeast of Bloomington, under which a gang of six workmen had taken refuge during the hard rain and wind storm. Four of the six workmen were instantly killed, the other two were shocked but by a miracle escaped with their lives. The deadly work of the terrific bolt of lightning was freakish; one of the men who lives to tell the story was directly between two of the men who were killed. The dead are: Thomas Hacker, age 49, son of John Hacker, north Jackson street, survived by a wife and two sons, who reside between Dolan and Hindoostan. Otto Hacker, age 47, son of John Hacker, survived by one daughter, Mrs. Lowel Algood, of this city. Kenneth Deckard, age 26, of Sullivan, survived by a wife and child. James Holt, age 26, a son of Cephas Holt, of Hendrixville, unmarried; a sister, Mammie Holt, West Monroe street, this city, is among the surviving relatives of Holt. The two men who escaped the awful tragedy with their lives are Harry Hobbs, who resides on Fee Lane, and Ottie Thornton, a brother-in-law of Charles Matlock, living a mile north of Bloomington on the Dixie highway. Herman Simms, William Weddle and "Doc" Deckard, were within thirty feet of the fatal cherry tree. "Doc" Deckard saw his half-brother killed. The tragedy took place shortly before 4 o'clock during the severe rain, wind and electrical storm which changed day into night during yesterday afternoon. All six of the men were employed in a gang which was gathering sod from the I. U. water works reservation. They were working under the direction of Oscar Weddle but Weddle was at the new field house at the University when the tragedy took place. As the electrical storm burned out the telephone at the I. U. water station and at the houses nearby, it was some time before a message came through to Bloomington. Doctors and ambulances were rushed to the scene at once, but the four unfortunate victims were beyond all earthly help. Medical attention was given to the two men who escaped, and one was brought to the hospital for a short time. The undertaking equipment of Arthur Day was sent to the scene to look after the victims and Dr. Rodney Smith, acting as coroner, went to the scene immediately to start the inquest which the law demands and to give permission to move the bodies. The law makes it illegal to move a body after a tragedy until it has been viewed by a coroner. The tragedy created intense feeling about the city as the people generally had viewed the storm with alarm as it passed over the community. The word of the tragedy spread about the business district like wild-fire and a crowd had started to gather at the Day funeral home when the motor equipment arrived with the four bodies. To a few veterans of the World war who were in the crowd (Continued on Page 8) FOUR KILLED BY LIGHTNING (Continued from Page 1) the scene recalled war days in France when the bodies were carried into the Day funeral home. The four bodies were prepared for burial as fast as the embalmers could work, and by 10 o'clock last night all bodies rested in the front room of the Day funeral home. Relatives and friends were allowed to view the bodies as fast as they were prepared. A scene of deep sorrow and mourning was enacted hour after hour last night as the loved ones of the four victims came to view the remains, to select burial clothes and to make funeral arrangements. Not in the last quarter of a century has such a scene been witnessed in Bloomington. The nearest tragedy in Monroe county history which compares in numbers with that of yesterday afternoon took place over twenty-five years ago when four men in an enclosed carriage were struck at the Owen crossing a mile below Ellettsville, by the midnight Monon Chicago express. The carriage was demolished and the bodies scattered up and down the track for a distance of a quarter of a mile. Next morning the four bodies rested side by side in a room at Ellettsville. The men who were killed had come to Bloomington from Spencer to spend an evening and they had no local relatives.