Source: Logansport Daily Journal - 17 January 1879 p 4
A Covington, Ind., special dispatch to the Indianapolis Journal, dated
the 15th, gives the following account of a most extraordinary
occurrence.On Tuesday night last, Leonidas Grover, who resided in the
vicinity of Newtown, Fountain county, met his death in a way that is
probably without a parallel in this or any other country.Mr. Grover was
a widower, living on a farm with a married daughter and her husband.On
the evening referred to the married couple had been absent on a visit to
some neighbors, and upon returning at a late hour, entered the house,
finding everything, to all appearance, in usual order, and supposing
that Mr. Grover had already retired, went to bed themselves.Next morning
the daughter arose, and having prepared breakfast, went to the adjoining
room to call her father, and was horrified to find him lying upon his
shattered bed, a mutilated corpse.Her screams brought the husband
quickly to the bedroom, and an inspection disclosed a ragged opening in
the roof, directly over the breast of the unfortunate man, which was
torn through as if by a canon shot, and extending downward through the
bedding and floor; other holes showed the direction taken by the deadly
missile.Subsequent search revealed the fact that the awful calamity was
caused by the fall of a meteoric stone.The stone itself, pyramidal in
shape, and weighing twenty pounds and a few ounces, avoirdupois, and
stained with blood, was unearthed from a depth of nearly five feet, thus
showing the fearful impetus with which it struck the dwelling.The
position of the corpse, with other surroundings, when found, showed that
the victim was asleep when stricken, and that death, to him, was painless.