Frank A. Hilton was born near Gothenburg, Nebraska, March 22 1904, and later with his parents moved to a farm five miles north of Farnam, where he grew to manhood.

Death came Friday evening, June 29th about 5 o’clock when he was struck by a bolt of lightning and instantly killed while standing in the barn door. Frank was loved by all who knew him, and a favorite among his school mates and friends, and the vacancy left in the home will be hard to fill.

Yet, we must part, and parting weep What else has earth for us in store? These farewell pangs how sharp and deep, These farewell looks, how sacred and pure.

Yet, we shall meet again in peace There hand to hand firm linked at last, And heart to heart enfolded all, We’ll smile upon the troubled past, And wonder why we wept at all.

He leaves to mourn his loss, a father, mother, five brothers and a sister, a baby brother having preceded him into the great beyond.

Funeral services were held from the M.E. church at 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon and interment was made in the Farnam cemetery. The sympathy of the entire community goes out to the bereaved family in this time of sorrow.

.....Last Friday evening, Frank A. Hilton, the 19 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Hilton residing about five miles north of town was struck and instantly killed by lightning.

Frank had just returned home from town when a storm came up very rapidly from the northwest and he was standing in the barn door watching it, when the lightning struck the flue on the house and followed an electric light wire to the barn, a switch was located on the wall near Frank’s shoulder and it is thought that it jumped from this switch into his body causing instant death.

The Hiltons are farming some land several miles from the home farm and when the storm came up, Mr. Hilton drove the car over to the other place to help one of the other boys take care of the horses thus leaving Mrs. Hilton, Frank and a younger brother at home alone. It is reported that Mrs. Hilton was standing near a window looking towards the barn when the lightning struck and saw Frank fall. She and the younger son went down there and found him lying on his back. They tried to phone for a doctor but the telephone was burned out and they were unable to get anyone so the little boy ran over to Mr. Dawson’s, a neighbor living about a mile south and summoned aid.

Source: Private collection of the Crossgrove family.