By DWIGHT LEONARD
(Adrian, Mich.) Daily Telegram
Titanic went down 100 years ago in the North Atlantic, but the events of that night were very familiar to one former Adrian resident.
Sister Patrick Joseph Kelly, an Adrian Dominican sister for 46 years until her death in 1969, was one of the relatively few people to survive the sinking of Titanic in 1912. Her journey began in County Mayo, Ireland, where she was born Anna Katherine Kelly, according to a paper written by her great-nephew John Kelly. At the age of 20 she decided to come to America where her sister and several cousins were living at the time.
On April 11, 1912, she boarded the RMS Titanic. Kelly made the voyage as a third-class passenger with a group of 14 others emigrating from County Mayo. Among this group were several members of Kelly’s family. At 11:40 p.m. April 14 the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began to take on water.
An article from the Irish Independent reported in May of 1912 that people from the lower decks were kept from coming to the upper decks where they might have had a chance to board the lifeboats. The article goes on to say that Kelly was escorted through the crowd by a steward she met on board.
She was able to escape the sinking ship by getting into Lifeboat 16 just before it left. A seat opened in the boat when a young wife refused to leave her husband, choosing instead to stay on the sinking ocean liner.
More than 1,500 passengers died when Titanic went down. Less than one-third of those onboard survived, just more than 700 people. Of the 14 members of Kelly’s group, only three survived that night.
After being rescued by the Carpathia, Kelly was hospitalized in New York City then sent to Chicago with Ann McGowan, another survivor from the group.
Kelly remained in Chicago until 1921. She did not speak at all about her experiences despite encouragement to do so from her family.
Kelly even voted in a precinct other than the one in which she lived so that those who might be looking to talk to her about the experience would not be able to find her.
While in Chicago she became acquainted with the Adrian Dominican Sisters and in 1921 joined the convent in Adrian, taking on the name Sister Patrick Joseph Kelly.
Kelly spent time teaching in three schools in Chicago and two others elsewhere in Illinois. She also taught for a short while at four different schools in Michigan and one in Iowa.
In June 1969 she retired from teaching. She spent her retirement at the mother house in Adrian until her death in December of that year.
Lenawee connections
Another Lenawee County connection was announced in the Daily Telegram on April 17, 1912, when Hudson residents Harriet and Charles Halsted, siblings of passenger Catherine Crosby, feared their brother-in-law was lost after his name did not appear on preliminary lists of the saved:
“Grave fears are entertained here as to the fate of Edward G. Crosby, of Milwaukee, who with his wife and daughter were among the list of those rescued, but no mention is found of Mr. Crosby, and his relatives and friends here are very anxious for further news.”
Edward Crosby’s death was confirmed two days later.
Adrian resident Samuel B. Renington, who had sailed the North Atlantic several times, was the subject of an April 20, 1912, article in the Daily Telegram. He spoke about his observations and understanding of the presence of icebergs in the area where the sinking took place.
The county’s smaller, weekly newspapers, from the Addison Courier to the Tecumseh Herald and Tecumseh News, received full-page, pre-made templates between April 19 and 26 describing the disaster.
An advertisement published in the April 19 edition of that year’s Daily Telegram — and backed by insurance agents from Adrian, Addison, Morenci, Onsted and Tecumseh — was one of the first local ads to capitalize on the sinking:
“In Lenawee County, there are thousands of homes that are constantly in danger of meeting with as great a loss as those who lost their husbands and fathers on the Titanic. If the support of the family is taken away by death, that family not only suffers from grief, but too often from actual privation. We cannot expect a Carpathia to come along and rescue us, but a Life Assurance policy in the Northern Assurance Company of Michigan, will act as a life preserver for those who are left to care for themselves.”
(Adrian) Daily Telegram reporter Dan Cherry contributed to this report.
