Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Spaulding, Leona 1913
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net December 5, 2009, 1:14 pm

Ionia Daily Sentinel, 18 Jul 1913

Death of Leona Spaulding

Account of Sad Accident Near Greenville.

As she ran from the rye field to the house for shelter from the rain, Leona 
Spaulding, the 11-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hector J. Spaulding was 
struck by lightning and instantly killed during the electrical storm Wednesday 
afternoon between 3 and 4 o’clock.

The Spaulding family whose home is in Ionia were spending their vacation at the 
farm home of Mrs. Spaulding’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Behrens, nine miles 
northeast of Greenville, where the incident took place.  Only yesterday morning 
they came up from Ionia, Mr. Spaulding being sent for to help harvest the rye 
as Mr. Behrens had fallen from a wagon the day before, fracturing a rib and was 
unable to work.

Mr. Spaulding was in the rye field when the storm clouds gathered, his two 
children, Leona and a son four years younger being out in the field with their 
father.  When the rain began he told the children to run for the house as fast 
as they could, as he intended to make another trip around the field.  The girl 
being less swift than her younger brother fell behind and when her father drove 
around the field he discovered her lifeless form.

The child’s body was burned all over, and over her heart was a heavy black 
spot, where the electric fluid had struck her.  Her hat and clothes were torn 
to pieces by the lightning.

The body was brought to Greenville this morning and taken to the residence in 
North Greenville, of Mr. and Mrs. L A. Spaulding, grandparents of the child.


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