From the Lykens Standard of November 4, 1932, comes this story of how Mrs. Bruner’s cow kicked a lantern in the barn and a started a fire that totally destroyed the barn:
COW UPSETS LANTERN; BARN DESTROYED
Wednesday evening at about 6:15 o’clock, Mrs. Gideon Bruner, residing close to the Stone Hill School, Loyalton, was preparing the stall in the stable to place the cow for the night. The animal took advantage of the entry door being open and ventured in before the stable was ready. Mrs. Bruner noticing the cow enter called in an effort to chase it back into the barnyard. The cow turned and in so doing upset a lantern which was set in the entry way. The lantern exploded, set fire to the loose hay and straw in the entry and almost in a flash the flames were shooting into the upper floor thru the hay hole which had been left open.
So rapidly did the flames consume the entire interior that it was utterly impossible for Wiconisco and Elizabethville firemen to say any portion of the structure upon their arrival. They directed their efforts to save nearby buildings.
A loss of several thousand dollars is recorded in the flames, as the barn was completely burned, including practically all of the farming implements which had been housed in the barn for the winter. No live stock were lost in the flames.