Lucretia Jane (Turner) Fleming (1848 - 1918)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Lucretia's lifetime.

In 1848, in the year that Lucretia Jane (Turner) Fleming was born, on January 31st, construction began on the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. - but the monument wasn't completed until 1888. A lack of money, the Civil War, and a dispute over who would manage the monument kept halting construction.

In 1869, Lucretia was 21 years old when on May 10th, North America's first transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, by driving a "golden spike" or the "last spike" of the line. The spike was driven by Leland Stanford and is now displayed at Stanford University.

In 1888, by the time she was 40 years old, Irishman John Robert Gregg published a pamphlet in the U.S., teaching his first version of shorthand - Gregg shorthand. When he improved on the first version and published it 5 years later, Gregg shorthand became popular.

In 1909, when she was 61 years old, Polish physician and medical researcher Paul Ehrlich found a cure for syphilis, which was a prevalent (but undiscussed) disease. He found that an arsenic compound completely cured syphilis within 3 weeks.

In 1918, in the year of Lucretia Jane (Turner) Fleming 's passing, on November 1, an elevated train on the Brooklyn line of the subway - driven by an inexperienced operator because of a strike - tried to navigate a turn at 30mph. The limit on the curve was 6 mph. The 2nd and 3rd cars of the 5 car wooden train were badly damaged and at least 93 people were killed, making it the deadliest crash in New York subway history.