The Terrible Mower Mowing Accident

One of the stories I was told when working on my Dad’s Mower family ancestry was that of his great-aunt Sarah Francis Mower or "aunt Sadie as my family called her.  Sadie was the youngest sister to my Dad's grandmother.  [see my posts "Treasures in the Wall" and " A relative tale of 3 governors" for more on Sadie's mother Sue (Spaulding) Mower]  Aunt Sadie had been crippled as a child a mower accident.  It seems her father had been mowing a field and had not seen her playing in the tall grass and ran over his daughter’s leg. 

The doctor was not able to save Sadie's lower leg and it was amputated.  She was fitted with a wooden leg to walk with and it was continually adjusted throughout her life.  Sadie’s daughter, Margaret had said that later in her mother’s life, she had gone to a doctor in Waterville to see if they could find a better prosthesis to help with the pain she had when walking.  Sadly the doctor told her that the original amputation had not been performed properly and there was little they could do to help at that point in time.  Both of Sadie’s daughters said that their mother never talked much about the accident and they knew little of the details or even how old she was when the accident ocurred.  The family never blamed Sadie's father, William P. Mower for accident.

William Penn Mower
My Great-grandfather
Father of Sarah "Sadie" Mower

My cousin has accused me of having the lucky genealogy gene as I did uncover more about the mowing accident while trying to research another side of the family to find a death notice in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier in 1879.  There was an article from the town of Dexter on a “Terrible Mowing Machine Accident- A little Girl has One Foot Cut Completely off, and the Other Badly Mangled- Her Father is in a Critical Condition as a Result of the Shock.”  I knew instantly I had found that the paper had picked up the story and now the details of the accident could be revealed.

Bangor Whig & Courier
July 10, 1879

Although the article clearly puts a spin of the dangers of mowing machines, it also provided more to the story that was never known to the descendants of how much her father suffered from the accident as well.  Although the article focuses on Sadie's suffering from the loss of her foot as well as William Mower's possible heart attack, it does not mention what Sadie's poor mother must have suffered through with her daughter in one room, losing her foot and that trauma, but her husband on the verge of dying in another room.  One can only imagine the chaos of the day in the home.  

Despite the horror of the events of 1879, William Mower survived and lived until 1910.  Sadie also went on to live a almost normal life as well.

Sadie Mower as a child after the accident
She could only bend her right leg

Sarah "Sadie" Mower went to finish school and graduated from Dexter High School in 1892.

Sarah Francis Mower graduation 1892

She eventually took a job in Oakland, Maine as a housegirl for the Mosher family.  She assisted Mrs. Mosher (Clara Wheeler Mosher) with household chores, cleaning and cooking in return for her rent.  The Mosher's had a son, Guy Lincoln Mosher who took an interest in Sadie and they eventually married and Sadie became mother of two daughters, Margaret and Rosalie.

Sadie and her daughters, Margaret and Rosalie in 1908

Sarah Francis "Sadie" Mower died on June 23, 1953 in Oakland, Maine.  I was not able to share the newspaper story with Sadie's oldest daughter, Margaret before her death in 2001, who was the family genealogist.  However I was able to share the story with Margaret's daughters and Margaret's sister, Rosalie before her death.  Rosalie told her own daughter, she never knew what really had happened to her mother.  Most all who read the story were surprised to learn of William's health that day as as the fact that Sadie never mentioned anything wrong with her toes on her other foot that were injured.

Sarah Francis "Sadie" Mower Mosher