Fearless Females

Nora Connolly, daughter of Irish Patriot James Connolly.  During the1916 rising in Dublin, twenty three year old Nora carried messages from her father, one of the leaders inside the GPO to volunteers in the north.  After her father’s execution for his part in the rising she devoted her life to the cause of Irish freedom.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh

 
 May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

Another Unfortunate Train Death

Amy Smith

    New Years Eve 1899 has been dubbed, “the saddest day in Farmington, NY history”.  That cold snowy night the entire Smith family, save two, were struck and killed by the midnight express.  Amy Smith and four of her children ages 23 to 7 died that night, only Amy’s husband and a 21 year old son survived.  In those days before crossing gates, tragic accidents like this one were all too common, and well into the 20^th century railroad work remained one of the most dangerous occupations.  Some insurance companies went so far as to refuse to issue life insurance policies to railroad employees.

     Several members of my family have also been killed by trains.  I’ve already written about Darby Hogan’s sad death in the post of that name, and that of my great uncle George Power in “Whiskey You’re the Devil”.  Another unfortunate victim was  Minnie Galloway, the older sister of my mother’s mother.  

     The Galloway family lived about three miles outside the sleepy village of Wolcott, NY in rural upstate New York.  Early one spring evening in 1903, fifteen year old Minnie and her friend Minnie Lent were returning to the Galloway home after a trip into the village.  Taking the shortest route, they started down the railroad tracks.  The girls were in a happy mood, planning a sleepover that night at the Lent home.  As they came to the Milliman Crossing, Minnie Galloway’s foot accidentally became lodged in the cattle guard and she was unable to free it.  In case you were wondering, cattle guards are steel horizontal rails placed in spots cattle were not welcome to trespass, the cattle won't cross them.

Cattle Guard

     At that moment a terrible sound reached their ears, the train whistle in the Wolcott depot, a mile away.  Minnie G. frantically begged her friend to run to the depot and flag the train down, but she was frozen with fear and unable to move.  As the sound of the train came ever closer the girl’s terror grew, in their frantic state neither thought of removing the shoe.  As the train rounded a curve, 200 feet ahead the engineer saw a horrifying sight on the tracks; a young girl struggling to free herself and another, the Lent girl, jumping on and off the tracks in a manic display before she fainted and rolled down the embankment.

     Two hundred feet is nowhere near enough distance in which to stop a rapidly accelerating freight train; Minnie was struck and her body hurled thirty feet.  The local paper reported both her feet were cut off and her shoe found still lodged in the cattle guard.  The crew loaded Minnie’s lifeless body onto the train which backed up to the Wolcott depot with its grisly cargo.  The local coroner was called and after examining Minnie’s body, it was released to her heartbroken parents.  They laid Minnie to rest in Wolcott’s Glenside Cemetery in her family’s plot.

 

    If you have ancestors who were involved in train accidents, you may find this site interesting  http://www.northeast.railfan.net/wreck.html  it contains pictures of the wrecks and some articles about them in the US and Canadian northeast beginning in the 1880’s.  Even the Lehigh Valley wreck of 1911 in my father’s old hometown, Manchester, NY is in there.

Women's History Wednesday

     Some of my favorite women, the O’Halloran sisters of Clare.  When their landlord attempted eviction, these seriously hardcore girls defended their home and family with boiling water and a commandeered bayonet!  For a firsthand account as told by their brother see this site--http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/bodyke_evictions/frank_ohallorans_account.htm

Childbirth circa 1926

      Next month will be the 2^nd anniversary of my dear Mother’s death, and her room is still pretty much the same as it was the day she entered a nursing home eight years ago.  That’s the way my father wants it.  He always cherished the hope he’d be able to bring her home someday, and her room was waiting, but his own worsening health problems precluded that.  Yesterday I started cleaning the room up a bit and came to a box of miscellaneous papers.  It contained an array of ancient bank statements and tax receipts, report cards of mine she had saved, a dog’s tag, (she always had a dog or two) a few cancelled checks.  They make you ponder, these remains of a life do.  Here are all the ephemera but where is the person?  It’s quite profound to realize all this “stuff” outlasted her as it will all of us.

 

Mom (on the ground) and her older sister Marian

     A small yellowed envelope caught my eye and upon opening it I found her birth certificate and a revelation -- Mom was born at home!  It never crossed my mind that a baby born in 1926 would be born anywhere but in a hospital.  My mother’s family lived in a very rural area in eastern Wayne County, NY.  There were no cities around though there was a smallish hospital in nearby Lyons, NY.  I questioned my father about this but he could add nothing to the story.  My mother was the fifth of seven children, so childbirth was nothing new for my grandmother, her mother and probably a midwife assisted with the delivery while my grandfather occupied the younger children or sent them to a relative or neighbor.

     After looking around the net I discovered it was actually quite common, particularly in rural areas, for women to give birth at home during that era.  I also discovered that may have been a very good thing for everyone involved.  The mortality rates for women and their babies were actually higher in areas where physicians performed deliveries in hospitals, and it’s easy to see why.  A prominent American obstetrician of that time, Dr. Joseph DeLee, termed childbirth, “a pathological process from which few escape damage.”  He advocated routine sedation of the mother, episiotomy and forceps delivery, followed by removal of the placenta using a technique whose name alone sends a chill down my spine, “the shoehorn maneuver.”  Unfortunately, his recommendations did become the norm even in complication free deliveries and many women and their babies suffered for it.  A later study concluded that an increase in infant mortality rates at that time was due to injuries resulting from obstetrical interference during the birth.

     It was not until the 1930’s that maternal death rates began to recede, due largely to the introduction of sulphanamides, (sulfa drugs), to combat puerperal infections which were responsible for a large number of maternal deaths.  Thankfully the medical community today regards childbirth as the natural process it is and such draconian measures are no longer in use.  Midwives have even made a return though usually in a hospital setting.  I am reminded by this to never assume, even things that seem self evident may surprise you.