Hysterical, (Historical), Photo of the Week
I have come across some really neat historical photos at my mother's house, and hoping that I'll find more! The invention of the Kodak camera, seems to have taken my family by storm, and as soon as we could, we all bought one and started snapping away... Uncle Louie, my grandfather's brother, developed all of the photos.
At any rate, this is a picture of my aunt's and uncle's house in Hawesville, KY, during the 1937 flood. The water came up to the top step in my aunt's house, and she fled her house to go stay at Mrs. Basham's house, in the attic, (her mother's home). With her, were her friends Fanny and Delbert Boyd, with their daughter, Alzada. (Pronounced Al- zay -duh)
While the flood waters were rising, Alzada became seriously ill, and died. There were yet to be the fleets of rowboats that helped the town's people move around the inundated town. Aunt Lois went with Fanny and Alzada's body, in a boat to the Sapp's Funeral Home, which was also flooded. Finally, the four of them, (Fanny, Aunt Lois, Alzada, and Joe Sapp), took the rowboat up to the hill, and got the body to the back roads that were unflooded, so she could be put in cold storage in Owensboro.
During the flood, no one could be buried, because coffins were floating up out of the cemetery, up on the hill, due to the rising water table. The mass grave from the steamboat accident of many years before, disgorged all of its poor victims, as well. Fanny, Aunt Lois, and Joe Sapp, stayed at the funeral home until the water went down, about a month.
Even though Uncle Louie was touted as the photographer of the family, Aunt Lois took this picture of their house. Uncle Louie and my Grandpa, borrowed a hand car from the railroad, (Grandpa worked for the L&N Railroad), from Owensboro, to make sure the tracks were cleared, hand pumping their way the 28 miles to Hawesville. They had to stop frequently to clear the debris enough to get there.
Here is Hawesville, during the 1937 flood:
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It took nearly a year for the house to be fixed, and then Aunt Lois and Uncle Louis built a home on top of their garage, so they would never be flooded again. Shortly after they finished their house, the town built a levy, naturally, so they could have stayed in their charming home... Oh well.
I still have many items from this house-- mostly from "The Ship Room", where everything was decorated with a nautical, steamboat theme. When Peep was a youngster, we used them to decorate HIS room.
I knew Joe Sapp. He was 92 in 1966, and directed Uncle Louie's funeral. His wife was a lovely woman! Very pretty! Much younger than he was... Looking back, he was probably an old goat, but he was kind to me, as a child. (I was 11 when Uncle Louie died.) I also knew Fanny and Delbert very well. They were the ones that told me that my Grandmother made such a pretty corpse. Sigh, I could have used some of their comic relief last week...
Note: the rocks in the background. I know, I know... But, this is the cliff that encompasses the little town, and if you look closely, you can see the coal seams in the rocks. Yeah, I think it's neat.
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My wife would have slapped my silly if I had letmy bath water run that long....
This was a Significant Event, weather wise. Aunt Lois said it rained for 40 days... and it was cold and nasty for long afterwards. I can only imagine how horrible it was!!!
And LOL!!!
Really excellent history surrounding the picture Dowser. I was thinking that perhaps the steamboat disaster that you spoke of was the explosion of the Sultana in 1865, but that took place on the Mississippi.
Please post others when you can; I love old photos!
Hay!!!Junior you can stop pumping now the sinks full. That new sucker washer is workin fine.
Great photo and memory Dowser keep them coming.
Sweet Dowser, thank you for sharing some of your family's history.
Like Larry said, keep them coming!!
I think, now don't quote me, but I think it was in the 1880s or 1890s. There is a massive monument in the cemetery, but I'm not going back there any time soon. Can't bear it, yet. When I do, I'll look it up.
This is the infamous cemetery where someone's ashes were placed in an urn on top of their headstone. As a child, I was running through the cemetery, tripped over it, and managed to scatter some poor soul into the wind. You should have seen my Grandpa scooping them up, frantically!
I do too!!! I think there are lots, I'm just not finding them quickly or easily... But, I will! I'll post the best ones!
I'm so glad you liked this!!! I'll do my best to find interesting things! Much love to you, dear Larry!
Well, it's a break from all the ickiness out there... Thanks so much for coming by! I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
Everyone likes rivers . They like them so much they build homes near them ... but eventually that turns out to be a bad idea .
I've lived on the Ohio River almost all of my life-- but up, above the flood level. I've always enjoyed watching the barge traffic, and just watching it go by... but, I sure don't want to live where it floods!
Funny!!!
It rained for 40 days? Where was Noah?
I always wondered the same thing...
A bit too square to slip through the water...
Tried to Google the cemetery monument, but there were no pictures. It did, however, send me to the Wikipedia article about the flood. That one was the biggest ever recorded on the Ohio River. Extended all the way from W. Virginia to the Mississippi. 70% of Louisville was under water and development since then has been toward the Eastern part of the city, away from the flood plain. By the early 40's the Army Corps of Engineers had constructed a system of reservoirs to keep it from getting that bad again. It seems to have worked so far. The article said that, once the thaw started the river rising, they got 18.5 inches of rain in 16 days. I've been in places where it rained more in that short a time, but those were the tropics. Eighteen and a half is big for the Midwest. i can easily see where your Aunt Lois would figure it was forty days, it must have seemed like it.