Cunningham, Maggie – d. 1894

CUNNINGHAM

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 7/13/2021 at 21:35:29

Poor Little Maggie – One of the most distressing accidents that ever occurred in “the hollow” was that by which Nelson Cunningham’s nine-year-old daughter, Maggie, lost her life last Monday. With other children she was playing in the road near her father’s home when Thomas Downey drove along in his spring wagon.
The child ran after the vehicle and clinging to the back seat perched upon the axle, playfully “stealing a ride.” Mr. Downey paid no attention to the child – not caring to interfere with her sport – until a piercing scram, and temporary check upon the motion of his vehicle, warned him something terrible had happened. He stopped the vehicle and getting out found the child’s right leg entangled in the right hind wheel. The bones were twisted and crushed and blood was pouring from a wound through which protruded a broken bone. The child had slipped from her perch on the axle and her leg caught in the wheel, where she seemed to be inextricably impaled.
Unable to remove her alone Mr. Downey called assistance, but it was fifteen or twenty minutes before she was removed from the wheel; her agony during the ordeal being so pitiable that Mr. Downey and those assisting him were moved to tears. The child was taken to the home of Mr. Horsman and Dis Jones, of Valeria, and Gearhart, of Colfax, were summoned.
Dr. Turner accompanied Dr. Gearhart, and upon their arrival it was decided to amputate the limp and shattered limb. The operation was performed by Dr. Gearhart assisted by Dr. Turner, and the little one never rallied, but passed away at 10 o’clock the same night. The funeral was on Tuesday, from the family residence and the remains were interred in the Sams cemetery.
Source: The Weekly Clipper (Colfax, Iowa); Friday , October 12, 1894, page 4