- Mountain Echo newspaper, London, KY
Friday 20 June 1890; Page 3, Column 3
DEATH-DEALING LIGHTNING
A Home Rendered Forever Unhappy
A Mother and Little Son Instantly Killed
At Williamsburg, last Wednesday morning, just about the time the clock in the court house tower was tolling the hour of 10 o'clock and at a moment that a very dark cloud was rising and the elements all around were threatening, there suddenly came a gleaming flash of lightning, a keen and deafening report of thunder rang out upon the quiet breezes of the usual quiet little city, and all that was mortal of Mrs. Cortez Brown and her six-year-old son, Cortez, lay limp and cold in death, and near them lay the almost lifeless body of little Robert, aged four.
The circumstances of the terrible tragedy were almost these.
Upon seeing the approach of the threatening cloud Mrs. Brown, with her two children, went out to the wash place for some purpose, and while there the lightning struck a tree nearby, instantly killing her and her little son and so shocking the other little boy as to leave his recovery doubtful for quite a while, but in a few hours he came to and so recovered as to be able to walk around, but not able to give any intelligent account of the awful calamity, which swept from him in the twinkling of an eye, his beloved mother and little brother.
No one saw the accident, but from all indications the mother had her sated(sic?) little boy in her arms and sheltered by an umbrella, while the other little fellow was a few feet away.
The remains of the mother and son were brought to London yesterday morning, and yesterday evening laid to rest in the private burying ground of Mr. J. T. Brown, brother of the bereaved husband.
Mrs. Brown was the daughter of Mr. W. M. Hale, of the western portion of this county, and one of our ablest and best citizens, and she was one of the most industrious, kind hearted and sweetest tempered women we ever knew, and her untimely death is deplored by all, and leaves a vacancy in the family that can never be filled.
She leaves a husband and four children to mourn her death.
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1852 - 1890 (37 years)
