Friday, November 13, 2015

Friday's Photo/Grace Galloway Lash Wolcott, NY

Grace Galloway Lash 1898-1934
     Grace is my mother's mother, she was born in Wolcott, New York to Russell Carlton Galloway and his wife Harriet Elizabeth Vincent.  In the above photograph she is about sixteen years old.  Inscribed on the back is --"To Grandpa & Grandma Love, Grace"  They would have been her father's father George Galloway and his wife Harriet Foster.  Harriet was Grace's step-grandmother, and her aunt!  Harriet's sister, the late Clarissa Foster, was Grace's actual grandmother. 

     Grace's other set of grandparents John Vincent and Sarah Charlotte  Fowler, who was the subject of my last blog, were deceased by the time this photo was taken in 1914.  Sarah died of TB in 1883 and John passed in 1905.

     Grace married Lewis Lash in 1921, the young couple lived with his mother Mary Wiggins Lash until they purchased their own home in Butler, New York.  They had seven children, my mother being the fifth.  Grace died in a tragic accident when the kerosene can she was holding exploded while she was filling her stove.  Several of her children including my mother were in the room, and several more in the barn with their father.  Upon hearing the explosion, Lewis came running and wrapped his wife in a blanket to extinguish the flames but the damage was done.  She died seven hours later in a small, local hospital.  

6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful photo... and tragic story.
    I'm always a terrible judge of age-- I'd have guessed her much older in the photo

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  2. I don't think it's you. I have photos of my Mother in which I'd swear I was looking at a woman in her 20's and she was only 16. I've found that in many cases with older pictures.

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  3. What a tragic death Ellie, poor woman. Your mother must have been traumatized.

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  4. Indeed she was. She was only eight years old at the time and it was something she could never forget.

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  5. What a sad story. I feel like I come across a fair number who either lost their home or life to fire. Between the candles, woods stoves, fireplaces and lamps, there was a lot of open fire in a typical home I guess and a lot of potential for tragedy. How sad that some of the children were in the room when it happened.

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  6. Yes, very sad. My Uncle, who was about 5 at the time remembers being driven away from their home afterwards and seeing the kitchen curtains blowing through the broken window. For some reason I find that image so heartbreaking...

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