Morgan Hill Times Sept. 17, 1909 Miss Isola Kennedy passed
peacefully to her eternal reward at about 10 o
’clock Friday night, Sept. 10, 1909, after having made a most
heroic struggle for life for two long months.
Morgan Hill Times
Sept. 17, 1909
Miss Isola Kennedy passed peacefully to her eternal reward at about 10 o’clock Friday night, Sept. 10, 1909, after having made a most heroic struggle for life for two long months.
From the time of her frightful encounter with a mountain lion on July 6, to Thursday, Sept. 2, she seemed to be gradually improving and her friends and loved ones were buoyed up with the hope of her ultimate recovery.
Thursday she was not so well and,from then till the time when death closed her eyes, her decline was steady and rapid. Early last week she became unconscious and remained so most of the time until the end. The entire community was shrouded in mourning when the word was sent that she had passed away. Her sister, Mrs. Maud Pickering of Junction City, Kan., arrived just hours before the end came.
Miss Kennedy came to California about twenty years ago with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Kennedy. She was a young woman of earnest, ambitious and energetic disposition and had an attractive and commanding presence. Her life was spent in beautiful, faithful service for her loved ones and mankind. Aside from her home life, her greatest interests were in her work to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to which organization she had been an active member for many years. She first became identified with the County and state work in 1898 when she was elected secretary of the Santa Clara County Union.
At the time of her death, she was on the State Executive Board and was also the honored president of the Bi-County Union of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. She held three medals won in contests given under the auspices of WCTU. The funeral services were held Sunday afternoon (Sept. 12, 1909) under the beautiful live oak trees in front of the family residence on Dunne Avenue and were conducted by state and county officers of the WCTU assisted by the Rev. E. McBride (Presbyterian?), who made an impressive address, C. E. Dunham (Baptist), who read a portion of the scripture, and the Rev. H. D. Edson (Methodist), who offered prayer. Mrs. Doerr and Miss Ayess of San Jose both made addresses to which they spoke with much feeling of the beautiful life and work of Miss Kennedy. Sweet music was furnished by the choir of the Presbyterian Church, among the selections given being touching solos by Miss Olive Norton and H. W. Coates.
The funeral procession was one of the longest ever seen in Morgan Hill as not only the entire community, but also a number of prominent WCTU workers from different parts of the county, were gathered to pay their last tribute of support to a beloved friend and co-worker. The local WCTU and the Fraternal Aid Association, of which Miss Kennedy was an honorary member, attended the funeral in a body. The grave was covered with beautiful flora tributes, among them being a large pillow from the local union and a large, mounted wreath from the Fraternal Aid Association, the latter having been chosen because of the wreath being significant of bravery.
The pallbearers were C. A. Hatch, A. E. Buchheister (Deputy Sheriff), A. E. Thompson (city clerk), Fred Stone and Irwin Payne.
The injuries sustained by Miss Kennedy were frightful in the extreme. The left ear was completely eaten off and the other badly lacerated, and a cut to the right eye laid bare the bone but left the eye uninjured. Her left arm was fearfully mangled from the shoulder to the fingers and, during the following weeks, caused her the greatest pain. Her right arm, back and let were also badly torn.
The wounds of Earl Wilson healed rapidly and he was soon apparently in good health, but on Monday, Aug. 23, he was taken with a high fever which developed into lockjaw and then spinal meningitis and the lad passed away in agony on Tuesday afternoon. It was only a few days after this that Miss Kennedy’s decline began and it is thought that the animal must have been mad at the time it made the attack.
Morgan Hill Times
Sept. 24, 1909
Dr. P. Otto Puck went to San Francisco yesterday and will probably go to Texas to relocate. He wishes to thank his many friends for their patronage and kindnesses extended to him during the seven years of his practice in Morgan Hill.
Morgan Hill Times
Sept. 24, 1909
John Kennedy received word this week from Portland, Maine, that the WCTU are planning to give the children of the United States an opportunity to contribute for a monument in recognition of the bravery of his lately deceased daughter, Miss Isola Kennedy.
