Jennie Ward Todd
Jennie Ward Todd
Jennie and her brothers raised themselves up from poverty by learning acrobatics and becoming experts in their field, performing under the name 'The Flying Wards'. Jennie married Alexander Todd, also a performer with the 'Flying Wards' in 1912. On June 22, 1918, Jennie and her husband were in the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train Accident, Jennie was killed and Todd survived. Jennie was pregnant with their first child at the time of her death. The house Jennie was raised in with her brothers no longer exists. Aunt Bessie was best friends with Jennie, and performed with the Flying Wards.
Obituary, June 25 1918, page 3,
- The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois:
Body of Mrs. Jennie Ward Todd Arrives
Last Rites for Bloomington Woman to be Solemnized in Home Town
- Sympathy of Entire Community Extended to Alex Todd, Bereaved Husband:
The body of Mrs. Alex Todd, formerly Miss Jennie Ward of Bloomington, one of Bloomington's premier aerial performers who met death Saturday morning when a Michigan Central troop train crashed into the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train between Gary and Hammond, Indiana arrived in Bloomington this morning at 1 o'clock over the Chicago. Accompanying the remains were Edward Ward, brother of the deceased and his wife, Mayne Ward. The husband Alex Todd, Mrs. Fanny Elza Ward, mother of the deceased, and Elza Ward, a brother, arrived here Sunday night and have since been at the Ward home, 1201 East Emerson Street. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ward were badly cut and bruised and were in the hospital. Edward's back is wrenched, his feet are cut and he sustained other severe injuries. Mr. and Mrs. William Summers, others of the Bloomingtonian's with the circus troop were injured, but have now joined the circus again in Beloit, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Enos are yet in the hospital. The Ward home on East Emerson Street, where the Flying Wards lived during the winter months and "worked out" for the season's work, which ordinarily was the scene of pleasure and where happiness reigned, is enshrouded with gloom. Alex Todd, husband of the dead woman, talked with a Pantagraph reporter last night and as to the accident said his mind was a blank. He is grief-stricken over the death of his wife and burst into tears when he speaks of her. The body was taken to the Ward home this morning. According to the announcement elsewhere in this issue, the funeral will be held Wednesday afternoon.
Jennie was a young circus performer who was killed in the tragic Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train wreck of 22 June 1918 just outside Gary, Indiana. The crash took many lives and also seriously injured Jennie's brother Edward, also a circus performer. Edward's wife, Mayme, escaped serious injury.
Jennie is interred at Showmen's Rest in Forest Park, Illinois.
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