The Idaho News, Obituaries, 1887-1891
Blackfoot, Bingham County Idaho

Try our genealogy search engine

1887-1891 Obituaries from the Idaho News, in Blackfoot, Bingham County Idaho.

BORCHER, Henry, Obituary

Strange Freak of Electricity.
NEW ORLEANS, La., Oct. 18.- Henry Borcher, an employe of the telephone company, was killed this morning by a stroke of electricity from the wires of the electric light company. The unfortunate man and two other employes were engaged in stringing wire. During their work they encountered two Brush wires stretching across the street. When Borcher and his companions reached the corner the former called to give out slack, it being necessary to get this over the electric wire. William Burke tied the rope to the end of the telephone conductor and threw it across the electric wire; Burke then began pulling the rope, and Borcher continued letting out slack. Suddenly Borcher was seen to leap in the air, and then fell back. When his companions reached him he was dead. The hands of the dead man, where they had clutched the wire, were burned to the bone. Shortly after this accident a colored man in another part of the city was shocked and severely injured by an electric light wire falling upon him. A car mule also stepped on a telephone wire laying across the track, and both mule and driver were knocked down. Both recovered after a time. [Idaho News, (Blackfoot, Id), October 29, 1887, p.2.]