Anna Fenn Maxwell

Anna Fenn

Quick Facts

Significance:

Johnstown Flood survivor.

Place of Birth:

Virginia

Date of Birth:

1854

Place of Death:

Richmond, Virginia

Date of Death:

March 11, 1928

Place of Burial:

Southmont, Cambria County, Pennsylvania

Cemetery Name:

Grandview Cemetery

"What I suffered, with the bodies of my seven children floating around me in the gloom, can never be told." -Anna Fenn Maxwell

Anna Fenn Maxwell is the only survivor from her family of nine. Anna lived with her husband John and her seven children on Locust Street in Johnstown. They were members of St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Locust Street. Her children were John Fulton, May Fleming Miller, Genevieve, George Washington, Anna Richmond Virginia, Bismarck Sullivan and Queen Esther. 

An account of Mrs. Fenn's story was recounted in The Story of Johnstown, by J.J. McLaurin. It reads, in part:

"I heard a noise, like buildings falling, and told the children to run upstairs. Before we all got up the water rushed through the doors and windows and caught us. I had the baby in my arms and the other children climbed on the lounge and table. The water rose and floated us until our heads nearly touched the ceiling. I held the baby as long as I could and then had to let her drop into the water. George had grasped the curtain pole and was holding on. Something crashed against the house, broke a hole in the wall land a lot of bricks struck my boy on the head. The blood gushed from his face, he loosed his hold and sank out of sight. Oh it was too terrible!

My brave Bismark went next. Anna, her father's pet, was near enough to kiss me before she slipped under the water. It was dark and the house was tossing every way. The air was stifling, and I could not tell just the moment the rest of the children had to give up and drown. My oldest boy, John Fulton, kept his head above the water as long as he was able. At last he said: 'Mother, you always said Jesus would help. Will he help us now?' What could I do but answer that Jesus would be with him, whether in this world or the brighter one beyond the skies? He thought we might get out into the open air. We could not force a way through the wall of the ceiling, and the poor boy ceased to struggle. What I suffered, with the bodies of my seven children cflating around me in the gloom, can never be totld. Then the house struck hard and the roof broke. I punched a hole bigger and got out. The roof settled and I could do nothing more. How the night passed I know not, as I have no remembrance of anything after the house stopped until Saturday morning. Then I recovered my sense and saw I was close to the school-house at the lower end of Vine Street. I was numb with cold and prayed for death, if it were God's will. Soon voices called to me to keep up courage and I would be taken off. Some man put a piece of bread on a stick and threw it towards me. It floated beside the wreckage I was on and I caught it. A mouthful satisfied me. At noon a boat took me to the shore and I was given some food. I did not know then whether Mr. Fenn was saved or lost, and I set out to see what could be heard of him. I knew all my children were dead and had floated down among the rubbish on the Point. On Sunday I heard of my husband's fate. I had hoped he got across Stony Creek and would return, but the dreadful news destroyed the last spark of comfort in my soul. I had drunk the cup of sorrow to the lowest dregs."

She identified her husband on November 11, 1889 from a button she had sewn on his collar on the day of the flood. Of her seven children, Bismark and Genevieve were the only two that were identified in the fall of 1889.

Mrs. Fenn eventually moved back to Virginia because she didn't have any relatives in the Johnstown area besides a few relatives from John's family. She eventually married Samuel Maxwell. Upon her death, Anna was buried at Grandview with her first husband, John and her children Bismark and Genevieve. Samuel and his second wife Rose are also buried in the Fenn plot.