Lewis P. McFarland, Civil War veteran and former New Castle, Pa., constable, chose to stay home rather than accompany his wife and daughter to the Sunday evening church service on 29 Sept. 1902. It would cost him his life.
The story, as handed down in family circles: It had been a hot, muggy few days. Lewis's wife, Annie, had moved the bed next to the window where it was cooler and before leaving for church opened the windows wide to catch the evening breeze. After they were gone Lewis decided to take a nap and, so the story goes, at some point either sleepwalked (which he was prone to do) or became disoriented because the furniture had been moved. Either way, he toppled out the bedroom window and was impaled on a picket fence two stories below, where Annie and their daughter, Della, found him later when they returned home.
(One of the local papers, the New Castle Weekly Herald, offered a different explanation, suggesting Lewis had been tippling and had either crawled or jumped out the window "in a semi-conscious condition.")
Lewis would linger nearly 24 hours before succumbing to his injuries. He left his wife, Annie Elizabeth Emery McFarland; three sons John, Emery and George McFarland, as well as two daughters, Mary and Martha Della. Another daughter, Lyda, had died in 1896. A fourth son, Bertie Wilbur, also preceded him in death. Both are buried with their parents in Unity.
(As told by V.E. Anderson Harris, who heard the story from her mother, Della, and grandmother, Annie.)
The story, as handed down in family circles: It had been a hot, muggy few days. Lewis's wife, Annie, had moved the bed next to the window where it was cooler and before leaving for church opened the windows wide to catch the evening breeze. After they were gone Lewis decided to take a nap and, so the story goes, at some point either sleepwalked (which he was prone to do) or became disoriented because the furniture had been moved. Either way, he toppled out the bedroom window and was impaled on a picket fence two stories below, where Annie and their daughter, Della, found him later when they returned home.
(One of the local papers, the New Castle Weekly Herald, offered a different explanation, suggesting Lewis had been tippling and had either crawled or jumped out the window "in a semi-conscious condition.")
Lewis would linger nearly 24 hours before succumbing to his injuries. He left his wife, Annie Elizabeth Emery McFarland; three sons John, Emery and George McFarland, as well as two daughters, Mary and Martha Della. Another daughter, Lyda, had died in 1896. A fourth son, Bertie Wilbur, also preceded him in death. Both are buried with their parents in Unity.
(As told by V.E. Anderson Harris, who heard the story from her mother, Della, and grandmother, Annie.)
Lewis P. McFarland, Civil War veteran and former New Castle, Pa., constable, chose to stay home rather than accompany his wife and daughter to the Sunday evening church service on 29 Sept. 1902. It would cost him his life.
The story, as handed down in family circles: It had been a hot, muggy few days. Lewis's wife, Annie, had moved the bed next to the window where it was cooler and before leaving for church opened the windows wide to catch the evening breeze. After they were gone Lewis decided to take a nap and, so the story goes, at some point either sleepwalked (which he was prone to do) or became disoriented because the furniture had been moved. Either way, he toppled out the bedroom window and was impaled on a picket fence two stories below, where Annie and their daughter, Della, found him later when they returned home.
(One of the local papers, the New Castle Weekly Herald, offered a different explanation, suggesting Lewis had been tippling and had either crawled or jumped out the window "in a semi-conscious condition.")
Lewis would linger nearly 24 hours before succumbing to his injuries. He left his wife, Annie Elizabeth Emery McFarland; three sons John, Emery and George McFarland, as well as two daughters, Mary and Martha Della. Another daughter, Lyda, had died in 1896. A fourth son, Bertie Wilbur, also preceded him in death. Both are buried with their parents in Unity.
(As told by V.E. Anderson Harris, who heard the story from her mother, Della, and grandmother, Annie.)
The story, as handed down in family circles: It had been a hot, muggy few days. Lewis's wife, Annie, had moved the bed next to the window where it was cooler and before leaving for church opened the windows wide to catch the evening breeze. After they were gone Lewis decided to take a nap and, so the story goes, at some point either sleepwalked (which he was prone to do) or became disoriented because the furniture had been moved. Either way, he toppled out the bedroom window and was impaled on a picket fence two stories below, where Annie and their daughter, Della, found him later when they returned home.
(One of the local papers, the New Castle Weekly Herald, offered a different explanation, suggesting Lewis had been tippling and had either crawled or jumped out the window "in a semi-conscious condition.")
Lewis would linger nearly 24 hours before succumbing to his injuries. He left his wife, Annie Elizabeth Emery McFarland; three sons John, Emery and George McFarland, as well as two daughters, Mary and Martha Della. Another daughter, Lyda, had died in 1896. A fourth son, Bertie Wilbur, also preceded him in death. Both are buried with their parents in Unity.
(As told by V.E. Anderson Harris, who heard the story from her mother, Della, and grandmother, Annie.)
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