Samuel Clements Exley and Martha "Mattie" Dennison

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Husband Samuel Clements Exley ¹

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           Born: 4 Feb 1856 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 8 Dec 1940 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Godfrey Exley, Jr. (1822-1895) 3
         Mother: Barbara "Babette" Best (1829-1880) 3

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Martha "Mattie" Dennison ²

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           Born: 17 Sep 1861 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 14 Feb 1929 2
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 F Mae Exley ²

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Abt 1914
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Leonard Lee Best (Abt 1880-Abt 1906) 2

         Spouse: Frederick Berlin (      -      ) 2

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General Notes: Wife - Martha "Mattie" Dennison

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SLEIGH RIDE
(Uncle Sam Exley and his wife Mattie)
On a cold wintry day Sam Exley hitched the horse to the sleigh. There was a foot or more snow on the ground, but the sun was shining. Sam and his wife Mattie were going to go for a Sunday ride.
Aunt Mattie got the blankets ready to cover their laps. Sam brought the sleigh up to the front yard and hollered to his wife. Mattie hurriedly walked outside with the blankets, as she didn't want to make her husband wait.
She stepped lightly into the sleigh and sat very close to Sam. Sam shook the reins and away they went – down the road, over the bridge and up the hill. Both talked quietly and enjoyed the slow steady pace of the sleigh as well as the wintry view.
"Won't be long to spring, honey," Sam said.
"I can't wait," said Mattie, "But it sure looks beautiful today, and it's great to get out of the house!"
All of a sudden the horse tripped and ran the sleigh over a very large fallen snow-covered log. The horse kicked its back leg and a big piece of ice came off and hit Mattie between the eyes. Sam got out and ran to his wife, Mattie was screaming, "Sam! Sam! I can't see, I'm blind, help me!" The force of the kicked ice had put her blind. Sam held her in his arms, both of them in a state of shock and Mattie quietly crying in disbelief. He picked her up and carried her to the sleigh and quickly took her home.
The doctor was summoned immediately from Knox and said, "There is nothing we can do for her, she will be blind the rest of her life." Uncle Sam took her to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia but every doctor said they could not help her.
Mattie kept to her bedroom for a week. She cried and wouldn't eat or do anything for herself for a week. After a week had gone by, she decided to face her tragedy and she began to work around the house and tried to regain some normalcy in her life. She had a terrible time with sewing her hems, but no one every said anything about them.
"So Terry," Grandma Dittman said as she finished the story, "Sleigh rides could be very dangerous, the good ole days weren't always that good."
By Terry Johnson-Cooney

1 Terrance L. Johnson-Cooney, The Exley Family 1789 to 2005 (Self-published, Aug, 2005), Pg 10.

2 Terrance L. Johnson-Cooney, The Exley Family 1789 to 2005 (Self-published, Aug, 2005), Pg 50.

3 Terrance L. Johnson-Cooney, The Exley Family 1789 to 2005 (Self-published, Aug, 2005), Pg 7.