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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

1899 :: Death from a broken neck


On this date in our family history . . . the 28th day of October . . . in the year 1899 . . . Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis dies of a broken neck in Milam County, Texas . . . this Josephine is a maternal 2nd great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . 





The news of her tragic death was reported in multiple newspapers, including the following article from the November 2nd edition of the Rockdale Messenger, which makes mention of her "gray mare" which is currently believed to be the animal in the above photo* . . . 


Accident - Mrs. W. P. Henry who has lived on the Cameron road, 3-miles from Rockdale for over 20-years left her son’s home on the Dr. A.C. Isaacs farm, about 3-miles beyond her home, to come home and as was her habit, she pushed her buggy animal, a gray mare that she has driven for several years, into a lope.



She drove over the hill at the home of George Banzhaf and turning down the hill, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Bradly were going from Rockdale to their home beyond Minerva in a light spring wagon, seeing the vehicle coming down the hill near them, pulled their team, a pair of young mules, to one side to give the road, but before the left wheel had cleared the track to the right fore wheel of Mrs. Henry’s buggy struck the hub of the wagon wheel and smashed it.


The woman had probably never seen the wagon or saw it too late to stop, and she was pitched foremost and fell with her head between the left fore wheel of the buggy and shafts and was so held that her hair was wound around the buggy hub and spindle and she was held there until some young man, met the buggy at the gate near the old Ferguson place, more than a half-mile this side of where the accident occurred.


She was dead when found as her neck was broken. She was buried at the Pleasant Grove cemetery Sunday evening. She leaves a husband and five grown children, three sons and two daughters, all married. Brother Henry does not blame the drivers of the wagon for the accident but thinks they should have ascertained the results before driving home.






*P.S. . . . this photo is from the private photo collection of Josephine's daughter-in-law and is not labeled . . . the lady on the left closely resembles other photos of our Josephine . . . enough so for us to think it is indeed grandma Josephine (1842-1899) . . . at this time we do not have any idea who the lady on the right might be . . . 

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