Salt Lake City (UT) Telegram, October 19, 1903, p. 7.
THRILLING EXPERIENCE
Thirteen Rattlesnakes are Driven Out When Fire Was Started
Nashville, Indiana, October 19-George Thompson of Honey Creek, near here,
had a thrilling experience with rattlesnakes that caused him to pack up and
move from a house he had occupied only one night.
A few days ago he moved into a new house, and the weather being rather cool,
a fire was built in the stove that stood in the fireplace. Soon after the
family retired they were startled by a peculiar noise, apparently made by a
heavy rope being dragged across the floor. This continued for several
minutes until Thompson became thoroughly frightened and struck a light.
Crawling about the floor he counted thirteen large rattlers and a number of
small ones and a few other whose heads were barely protruding through a hole
in the hearth.
When the light was struck, the reptiles sought safety under the hearth where
they had made their winter bed. The house had been unoccupied for several
months, and with the approach of cold weather, the snakes had crawled under
the house and made a nest in the hearth. The heat from the stove drove them
out.
Thompson awakened his family and they packed their household effects and,
with the break of day, started for their old home a few miles away.