St. Patty's Day Series: James Fingleton

My great great great grandfather, James Fingleton, was born in Gaspe, Quebec on January 31, 1835. He married Therese O'Toole in Douglastown in 1867. His children were Jennie, William, John, Laura, Esther, Amanda, Nora, and Annabelle Fingleton.

In about 1883, the family moved to Alpena, Michigan. He had a farm out in Wilson Township, a few miles outside the city. I know very little of him, except for the bizarre way in which he died. He was struck and killed by lightning INSIDE his own home during a massive storm in 1903. His story made it into several newspapers nationwide. What follows is the story as described in the July 30, 1903 edition of the Iowa State Press.



This strange occurrence was referenced in the memoirs of Evelyn Cochrane Mains, an old lifelong Alpena resident.


[ Every day was a picnic. Mother soon had a large garden and two or three cows. Every morning we drove to the "Fingleton" place, milked the cows and hoed the garden. Or rather, mother did. She had a green thumb and seemed pleased with more space for vegetables and children. She planted unusual vegetables like salsify, and flowers and peanuts in warm sandy soil. We could hardly wait for them to grow. In the fall we pulled the peanut plants and all along the roots the peanuts grew in shells, of course. They didn't get very ripe but we were excited to find how peanuts grew.

At noon we ate our lunch in a musty old house. We drew water from an open well with a rope windlass and a bucket. We didn't drink the water because a sheep had fallen into the well. The house was supposed to be jinxed because Mr. Fingleton had been killed several years previously by lightning coming down the chimney. The story was that lightning might strike again in the same place. ]