52 Week Challenge: #10 Etta E. "Ettie" Flood

Etta E. "Ettie" Flood

Ettie Flood was my paternal Great Grandmother.

The Mother of my Father's Mother.

As a family, we know very little of Ettie, we know of

no photos of her.  

Her story is short, but fraught with pain and

heartache.

Little Ettie was born at home in August of 1867.

Home was in Lake County, Ohio and her parents were

Franklin Flood and Jerusha Kirby Flood.

I learned from her father's Military Pension

file that her Grandmother, Julia Ann Rossman Kirby

attended her birth.  (Julia was said to be a nurse in the

Military Pension file of her son, Oscar.)

Ettie had one sibling, a brother,

Eugene Franklin Flood, who was about 10 years her junior.

Ettie's father, Franklin, had fought in the Civil War

and was wounded at the battle of Rocky Faced Ridge, losing

about 2 inches from one of his legs.  The injury

never healed properly, and Franklin soon  found himself

in the Dayton National Home for Soldiers.

Franklin died on the 14th of February, 1880.  Ettie

was just 12 years old, and her brother just 2.

In the 1880 United States Federal Census, Ettie and Eugene

are not listed with their mother, and I have not found them

living with neighbors or relatives as of yet.

What a difficult time for this little family.  The pension that

Jerusha received was very small, making day to day life

quite difficult for them.

I find Ettie next in marriage records.

On the 25th of February in 1885, Ettie married

John Purtell/Purtil.  She was just 17 years old.

The marriage documents (left side) for John Purtil and Etta Flood.

With the help of a very sweet volunteer in Painesville, we

found that Ettie and John divorced in December of 1895.

I have a copy of the divorce file.

Ettie filed, and won the case, retaining the right to 

return to her maiden name.  She filed for gross

neglect.  John had ceased to care for her, and she charged him

with drunkeness, he had stopped working and had lost all that 

they had. She had begun to rely on her own family for sustenance.

(Information from the divorce file.)

In January of 1896, on the 16th, Ettie Flood married

William H. Gaffney, my Great Grandfather, the son of Patrick H. Gaffney

and Julia Maria Mosher Gaffney.

They were married at home (most likely the Gaffney/Mosher home) in

Leroy, Lake County, Ohio.  The Reverend R. J. Hibbard was the

officiating minister.

The marriage documents for William Gaffney and Etta Flood

William and Ettie had 4-5 children between 1897 and 1903.

Two of these babies died at birth,

Katie Estell died in her infancy, only 2 months old

and little Frances lived a bit longer,

but was not yet a toddler, being very young when she died.

Only one of their children lived to adulthood,

my Grandmother, Evelyn Frances Gaffney, born in 1902.

How heartbreaking, to lose so many sweet little babies . . . . .

The end of May in 1904, Ettie became ill.  She

had Grip, or La Grippe.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online)

says of grip:  "grippe: an acute febrile contagious disease . . . . . Influenza."

In a few days, Ettie was dead, leaving a 

grieving and heartbroken husband and a little 2 year old

who didn't really quite know where her Mama was.

(A note here: my Grandma said that her first recollection was

not really a memory, but a sense . . . . . a sense of deep sadness.)

Grandpa Will buried Grandma Ettie in Evergreen Cemetery

in Painesville, Lake County, Ohio.

Perhaps the Lord felt it was time to relieve Ettie from the pain of loss,

 . . . . time to hold her close, perhaps for her to hold her

babies and to give her

eternal comfort.

Two of Ettie's very cute Great Great Grandchildren visiting her grave site in Ohio.