Lightning still makes the news in Iowa now and then --- as it did on Friday afternoon when a bolt struck two men on the Twin Acres Golf Course at Colo knocking one unconscious and sending both to a hospital. Their injuries apparently were minor.
That was not the case in Chariton on Wednesday, July 27, 1898, when an early-morning strike proved fatal, claiming the life of little Laura Roberts.
Thunderstorms apparently rolled across Lucas County for much of that day and further strikes in the afternoon caused consternation, but no permanent damage. In the afternoon, for example, "the chimney on the brick building of D.Q. Storie's drug store (on the west side of the square) was struck by lightning. Soot was thrown down the chimney, completely covering G.J. Stewart, who happened to be standing in the drug store."
And, "Ben Darrah was on the pavement in front of the store of J.H. Darrah & Co. yesterday afternoon when that sharp flash of lightning came. He was overcome or slightly shocked by the stroke and was unable to attend to his duties for a short time."
The deadly strike had occurred very early in the day on west Woodlawn Avenue in a small house not far from my southwest Chariton neighborhood. Here's the report from The Patriot of Thursday, July 28:
KILLED BY LIGHTNING
Little Laura Roberts a Victim of the Elements
Lightning struck the house on West Woodlawn Ave. occupied by Tom Roberts and family, early yesterday morning, instantly killing his little seven-year-old daughter, Laura. The bed the little girl was sleeping in was standing against the north wall of the one story structure. A boy, younger than the girl, was sleeping at the foot of the bed. His right leg was burned but otherwise he escaped uninjured.
The lightning tore a hole in the roof of the house near the chimney, knocked the plastering away from the north wall and tore weatherboarding from the outside of the house. Some of the boards were found two hundred feet north of the house. The house is old and contains but three rooms. Other members of the family were shocked by the lightning but soon recovered. The parents worked with the little girl for a time, trying to bring back the life so lately extinct, but their efforts were futile. Her body was burned horribly by the lightning.
Funeral services were conducted at the Roberts home on yesterday afternoon at four o'clock, Rev. H.W. Tate of the Baptist church speaking words of comfort to the sorrowing family.
Mr. Roberts is a poor, working man, he having moved with his family to Chariton from Virginia less than a year ago. He has a wife and six children, all of whom have the sympathy of this community in their recent bereavement.
+++
There are a couple of mysteries here regarding little Laura's burial. Although a similar report of her death, published in The Democrat, states that she was buried in the Chariton Cemetery, cemetery records to not mention it --- nor is there a tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery or elsewhere in Lucas County, understandable because the family was quite poor.
Both of her parents were buried some 30 years later in the Goshen Cemetery in southwest Lucas County's Union Township --- so it is possible that she actually is buried there, too. Other family members were living in the Goshen vicinity at the time. Whatever the case, the parents' graves also are unmarked.
+++
Laura was one of eight children born to Thomas Marion and Paulina (Stanley) Roberts. At the time Laura was killed, her surviving siblings were Sarah, Alfred, Marion, Vada and Marjorie. Another daughter, Charlotte, reportedly had died at the age of 14. Son Millard was born during 1903.
By 1900, the family was living on a farm in Jackson Township, not far from Goshen, but seem to have moved back to Chariton a few years later. Tom reportedly had vision problems that worsened to near blindness as the years passed.
Tragedy revisited the family during 1929 when Paulina took her own life, an occurrence reported upon in great detail in The Chariton Leader of July 30, 1929, when a complete account of her July 11 death in Canton, Illinois, reached Lucas County.
According to that report, Paulena and Thomas had separated late the preceding year and divorced during January of 1929. Paulena and their youngest son, Millard, then 26, moved to Canton in Fulton County, Illinois, where daughter Marjorie and her husband, Delano Portwood, were living.
Mrs. Roberts apparently had become obsessed with the safety and welfare of Millard, seeking to control nearly every move he made, causing conflict that resulted in arguments. He decided eventually to move to Peoria and live independently in the hope his mother would allow him to get on with life. Instead, she killed herself in the Portwood home.
Her remains were returned to Chariton and buried in the Goshen Cemetery. When Thomas Roberts died four years later at age 77 on Sept. 25, 1933, after a long illness, he was buried by her side.
No comments:
Post a Comment