Mrs Shackford Bitten by Pet Collie in
January, Thought Wound Healed
SPECIAL TO THE PRESS.
BOSTON, Sept 7-In the death of Mrs. Hannah Shackford the residents of Holliston to-day are gossiping and wondering whether there will be another outbreak of hydrophobia, in this section. Mrs. Shackford died in the Framingham Hospital from rabies, believed to have been the result of a wound inflicted by the teeth of a pet collie in January, when the animal was ill. At that time there was an epidemic of rabies throughout the section, and although the dog recovered and is now active Mrs. Shackford is dead. She scoffed at the idea of hydrophobia and denied there was any such disease. When her tongue began to swell on Tuesday last and she could not drink a physician was called. He watched her until Wednesday and ordered her removal to the hospital where she died last night.
When she was bitten Mrs Shackford, to relieve the fears of her son and daughter, went to Tewksbury and took the Pasteur treatment. The wound healed and the incident was forgotten until Mrs. Shackford was seized on Tuesday. The family has been the cause of much gossip in Holliston because they kept to themselves and were regarded as mysterious. They had plenty of mony and spent a small fortune on their house and grounds. The Shackfords came here four years ago and bought the Sylvanus Pond farm, which was in a dilapidated condition. The old farm house was remodeled, outside and in, and soon the place was transformed into a beautiful villa. Mrs. Shackford loved dogs, especially collies, of which she had half a dozen. They were the terror of peddlers and tradesmen who entered the grounds. Mrs. Shackford had to pay many claims for personal damages caused by her pets.
Hannah Elizabeth Shackford was born April 11, 1856 in East Boston to George Shackford, a bridge and wharf contractor and Rutha Elizabeth Crosby. Her brother was George A Shackford. She lived with her parents until the age of 30 when she married William G Grady, a machinist. They had two children Susan Frances and Edward Warren. We're not sure why sometime after his death in 1901 she changed her and her children's last names from Grady to Shackford. As mentioned in the above obituary, she died in 1907 after contracting rabies from one of her pets.
CHILDREN
Susan Frances Shackford (1887-????) - married Lyman Brown Morrill
Edward Warren Shackford (1890-1910) - married Anna Louise Morrill
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SOURCES:
1880 United States Federal Census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, East Boston, enumeration district (ED) Enumeration District No 576, Page No 38 (B), dwelling 227, family 341, George Shackford; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Marriages, 1841-1915, Marriages in the City of Boston for the Year eighteen hundred and eighty seven page 241, William G Grady m Hannah E Shackford, 17 February 1887; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 December 2013).
"WOMAN DIES FROM RABIES. Mrs Shackford Bitten by Pet Collie in January, Thought Wound Healed," New York Press, 8 September 1907; digital images, Fulton Press (http://fultonhistory.com : accessed 11 August 2013
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