October 29, 1960

Dairy barn burns, 27 cattle die

       Twenty-seven head of cattle burned to death in a dairy barn fire at the Ralph Sutton farm, 5 ½ miles northwest of here on Ind. 37, over the weekend.  Damage was estimated at $50,000.  Lost in the blaze which destroyed the barn, were 20 Holstein milk cows, seven heifers, 50 tons of hay, a feed mill and equipment in an adjoining milk shed.  Firemen first thought the fire was caused by arsonists, but a check by Harold Boehaholtz, an investigator for the state fire marshal’s office, found it apparently was started by a short in the wiring.

         White River Township Fire Chief Russell Young was treated at Johnson County Hospital at Franklin after being overcome at the scene.  Firemen from Greenwood, Bargersville, Whiteland, White River and Nineveh fought the blaze, but the roof already had caved in when the first fire fighters arrived.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)
 
    

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