FARNER, John - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

JOHN FARNER, a well known and highly respected citizen residing about 4 miles southeast of Wallace, was almost instantly killed last Friday afternoon from the effects of a dynamite explosion in a rock quarry near his home.  Farner and another man were engaged in blasting rock and had lighted two fuses, one of which went the other did not.  Farner, in spite of all the warning given by friends, proceeded to go back into the quarry.  As he reached down to pick up  the unexploded stick of dynamite, it broke in two and as it did so the fuse discharged and with a roar like a terrible peal of thunder,  Farner was hurled about five feet in the air.  When he came down he lighted on his face.   His right arm was blown off at the elbow, leaving only a thread of skin with the little finger dangling to the end of it.  On his forehead where he had struck the rock in falling, the skin was tore loose almost allowing it to fall down over his eyes.  Both eyes were blacked and almost swollen shut.   The skin on his chin was tore loose from the bone so that it was possible to run the finger down in under the skin.  Beside these the body was badly bruised from head to foot. Farner was quickly carried to the home of Harry Allen, who lives near and is boss over the rock road being built from the stone in this quarry, and Drs. Kaplinger of Wallace and Cuthbert of this place were summoned.  When they arrived it was plain to be seen that an operation must be performed and accordingly the right arm was amputated just above the elbow. The other injuries were dressed and every possible care was taken to save the man’s life, but at about 9:30 that same evening he passed quietly away after several hours of intense suffering. He leaves a wife, who is in the last stages of consumption and 1 child, besides a host of friends to mourn his loss.  Funeral services were conducted Sunday about 10:30 a.m. from the residence and burial was made in the cemetery at Wallace. - S