When the Lightning Struck

By Mary Ducharme  (June 2015)

Russell Wing, a young man, was there on that day of thunderstorms, when the lightning struck the Anglican church in Roxham. It was sometime in the mid-1940’s. This small historical footnote in the Archives is brought to life by a graphic eye-witness account. The story was told by Russell to his relative Donna Orr in the summer of 1993.

“We had just bought a new car that day and my mother thought we had better go to church. Howard and I wanted to go to the movies in Champlain instead, but I thought ‘hell, we’ll go another time.’ We went up to church and went in and we sang a song and the preacher said a sermon, plate for collection was passed, and we sang another song Abide with Me. Just as we sang Abide with Me, the lightning struck, everyone fell flat, the preacher too. We had a little box stove in the back of the church. Standing around the stove were Norman Akester, my brother Howard, Gilbert Fewster and me. When the lightning struck I was the only one standing and it blew a hole through the double floor, blew the two knots right through the floor and it blew my shoe off and my stocking looked like you had shot a gun through it and I had a brand new suit on and it shrunk the one pant leg up.

I had to climb over top of everyone, cause they were sprawled out just like they were drunk and I ran outside on one foot and I ran right out to the road. There was so much water all around I thought I am the only one that’s coming out alive, so I ran back through the door and met my brother coming out along with the others. The lightning split my toes, the blood was knocked out to my knee. My leg was numb and I had no feeling. We went to Fewster’s and the blood started coming down through. From there I went to the doctor in Hemmingford and the doctor thought I had been in a car accident and couldn’t believe I was still standing. Ralph Smith found my shoelace up near the organ.”

Historical notes:
Russell Wing was born 1919. He died in 2009 at the Florence Groulx Residence, a nursing home. His funeral was with the J.M. Sharp Funeral Home in Hemmingford. His brother, Howard “Red” Wing, died in 1999.

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St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church was also struck by lightning in 1926, destroying the handsome spire of the church which was never replaced.

Donna Orr, daughter of Mildred and Earl Orr, was a visitor to Russell’s home on the Alberton Road. Russell’s father was Guy Wing, and his mother was Ruth Smith. Mildred Orr was also a Smith in the same family, so the two families were relatives. Mildred Orr says that though she was not there as a direct witness to the events, Russell visited her the next day, carrying the severely damaged shoe. He kept the shoe in his possession for many years.

The preacher referred to is thought to be Rev. Ernest E. Dawson who was the Rector of Lacolle and who preached in Roxham for years. Rev. Dawson was a local historian and a member of the Archives Committee of the Diocese of Montreal. He did extensive research on the Anglican churches of this area, and through him the history of the Anglicans has been preserved.

The doctor in Hemmingford was Dr. August-Josaphat Abran who served Hemmingford starting in 1922.

Russell mentioned he went to the Fewster home. This would have been Charles ‘Charlie’ Fewster.

The church was built by the people of Roxham, ca. 1860, under the leadership of Rev. Edward Duvernet, who had been previously stationed at Henryville and was assigned to Hemmingford in 1856. It was to be a Union Church for the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and Adventists, but only the Church of England services were regularly held. Mildred and her husband Earl demolished the unused and ageing church around the 1950’s , using the bricks to construct a machine shed in back of their home.