Postcards of Our Past:
The Myth and the Miss.
Miss Isola V. Kennedy was killed in
Morgan Hill over one hundred years ago. Pretty much everyone who has
lived in South County knows the story, or do they?
Written By Michael Brookman
E
very community has stories about
those who lived there and the
remarkable things that happened
to them. Call these stories traditions,
legends, folk tales or myths; they all
share a foundation in truth. We love to
share what happens to us and stories can
quickly change shape in the re-telling,
even in this day of immediate electronic
recording. Embellishment and omission
are part of human nature. We want to
impart our news so that it has the same
impact and excitement it had on us.
How did we share this news of
earthquakes, fi res, train crashes and
mountain lion attacks at the beginning
of the 20th Century? With postcards!
They were the social media of the day
from the mid-1870s through the end of
WWII. In 1908 alone, we mailed almost
8 times the population of the country
in postcards! They were an inexpensive
and easy way to share graphic pictures
of people, places and events and add
one’s own thoughts on the back.
Two postcards have been identifi ed
that add to the story of the lion attack
in Morgan Hill, but fi rst a re-cap of the
basic legend:
Isola Kennedy, a young and beauti-
ful teacher engaged to local dentist Dr.
Otto Puck, took fi ve of her students to
picnic along a creek above Morgan Hill
in the summer of 1909. The boys were
playing in the water when one of them
was attacked by a mountain lion. The
children began screaming and Miss
Kennedy came running. She quickly
pulled a hat pin from her bonnet and
began stabbing the beast to save the
child. A nearby rancher came running
with a shotgun upon hearing the cries
and screams. He fi red both barrels at
the lion but that had no effect. He went
back to his wagon and got a rifl e. He
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Postcard from the collection of the late Brad
Spencer, retired Fire Chief, City of Morgan Hill
was able to wound the lion and then
fi nally kill it with a shot through its
mouth.
Miss Kennedy and the wounded
boy had been ravaged by the lion’s
teeth and claws and were very weak.
The boy died soon after the attack.
Miss Kennedy’s fi ancé was so upset by
her mauled condition that he left town
and disappeared. Some say she was so
grossly disfi gured that he could not bear
to look at her. Miss Kennedy died a day
or two after the attack and her mother
passed away soon after from grief.
Miss Kennedy’s funeral was the
largest that Morgan Hill had ever seen.
The incident of her brave death was
published throughout the state and
caught the attention of the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union that
looked on her as a role model for
abstinence from liquor. They were so
impressed that they honored her with
a lavish tombstone.
That’s the story and all of it more or
less true. Now, here are the postcard