Smith, Knight G. - 1831

Most Melancholy Occurrence.-- We understand that during the thunder storm on Thursday afternoon last, Mr. Knight G. Smith, school teacher at Hillsborough, Loudon county, for some years a resident of this town, was killed by lightning while seated with his family around his parlor fire.

The electric fluid, it is said, descended the chimney, instantly killing Mr. Smith, and temporarily depriving his wife and brother of sensibility, and passed through the floor to the cellar, where it tore up the ground with much violence.  Mr. S. was a very amiable man, whose death is deeply regretted by all his acquaintances.

P. S.  Since the writing of the above, we have heard some further particulars of this truly melancholy occurrence.  The lightning descended the chimney to the room on the second story, directly above that in which the family was sitting-- shivered to pieces a clock in that room, passed through the floor over the head of Mr. Smith, killed him instantly, struck down his wife and younger brother 15 years old, and passed through into the cellar.  The watch in Mr. S.'s pocket, was melted by the fluid.

A negro woman was also in the room, but she escaped without injury. A letter written on Monday last, four days after the event, states that neither Mrs. S. nor the younger Smith had recovered from the stroke, and that their lives were still despaired of.  During this interval they had manifested some consciousness; the former seeing sensible of the death of her husband, and the latter having spoken once.

--Winchester Republican.

~ The Port-Gibson Correspondent 02-Jul-1831, Page 3, Column 1

You can visit the memorial page for Knight G. Smith.