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| Elaine Hodgins. Struck by lightning on 1 Aug 1917. |
UPDATE: Judy Luker Massey
was told by her grandmother, Gladys (Hodgins) Luker (Elaine’s sister) that the lightning came down the cooking stove pipe and knocked Elaine out.
The house of Samuel Hill Hodgins (Elaine's father) was struck by lightning at the same time, leaving the building in need of a good deal of repair.
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| The Samuel Hill Hodgins home at Lot 14, Concession 3 in Biddulph Township, near Lucan, Ontario, Canada. The house was struck by lightning on 1 Aug 1917. |
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| Source: The Exeter Advocate, 9 August 1917, page 5. |
On 19 May 1917, just two months previous to the Hodgins incident, an electrical storm in the area cost the lives of two farmers.
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| A lightning storm on 19 May 1917. |
Although the following two people, Samuel Hicks and John Seale aren't Culbert descendants, they're very distantly related to us by marriages and numerous twists and turns on ye olde family tree.
Samuel Hicks was a former Biddulph Township resident who moved to nearby Usborne Township where he possessed 400 acres of land. When the storm came up, he took shelter in the basement of his barn. Samuel was in direct line with one of the windows. It was thought that he died from shock rather than a strike from a bolt of lightning as there were no marks on his body.
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| Source: The Exeter Advocate, 24 May 1917, page 1. |
John Seale of Clandeboye, north of Lucan was haying when he and his team of horses were struck by lightning. They were instantly killed.
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| Source: The Exeter Advocate, 24 May 1917, page 1. |
If the Hodgins names sound familiar, you read about Samuel Hill Hodgins, his wife Sarah Catherine (Crawley) Hodgins, and their children in this post. I also posted a memoir of Elaine Hodgins here, written by her son, Jerry Dempsey. The wife and children of Samuel Hill Hodgins are descendants of John Culbert and Mary Ward.
My grandmother, Gladys Hodgins (Luker) told my father Sam Luker (her son) about the Lightning Storm of 1917. She shared with him that the lightning came down the stove pipe and that her younger sister Elaine was knocked out. After this incident, my grandmother was afraid of lightning for the rest of her life.
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