The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is Power.
This is a new prompt in the 52 Ancestors series this year and it reminded me of an article I came across about the power of Mother Nature. The article tells the story of a young girl who was struck by lightning in her home in Clinton County, Ohio. My Creeden family also lived in Clinton County, but had moved to Mercer County, Ohio by the time of this story.
The following article was published in The Journal Republican in Wilmington, Ohio on March 26, 1913. Mary Creeden was dressing for school when a lightning bolt struck the house and knocked her unconscious. The article mentions that she was in the house of Mrs. John Creeden.and that Mary was the fourteen year old daughter.
During the hard thunder shower that prevailed for several hours Tuesday morning, the house of Mrs. John Creeden in south-east Wilmington was struck by lightning and the fourteen-year-old daughter, Mary, was very seriously injured. The sharp dash of lightning came at about twenty minutes of 8 o'clock as many people about town remember. Mary was in her room dressing for school when the bolt struck the house. She was rendered unconscious and for a time it was believed that she had been killed. Others of the family in other parts of the house did not feel the effects of the lightning to any serious extent. It seems that the full force of the bolt was directed upon the room in which Mary was dressing and she alone of the family felt its deadly power. Some members of the family were at the church and they, with Rev. Father Higgins, hastened to the home. Dr. Austin was summoned and rendered medical aid to relieve her sufferings. Though she was badly burned about the face and the right side of the body, it is believed that she will recover. The fright and great pain have produced a nervous condition that augments the gravity of the danger.
Given how severe Mary's injuries were, I wondered what became of her. From census records for Clinton County, Ohio, Mary was the daughter of John Creeden and Margaret Ann Dooley. Mary's father died in 1909 in Clinton County according to Ohio death records. In the 1920 census, Mary is living with her sister Sarah in Washington DC and both are working as clerks for the government. Mary is working for the Department of the Treasury. In the 1930 census, Mary is living in Alexandria, VA with her mother and has a government job as a clerk. Her brother Joseph is also living with them and is a fireman.
In the 1940 census, Mary is again living with Sarah and still working as a government clerk. She owns her home and is making a salary of $2000 a year. The census shows that she completed 4 years of high school and that Sarah completed 4 years of college.
A short obituary for Mary appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer on March 8, 1976. It appears that she moved back to Ohio maybe to be closer to family after retiring.
#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow. Newspaper articles are available on Newspapers.com.
This is a great read
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's amazing that Mary survived the lightning strike.
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