70 Years Ago - The 1937 Flood

Thanks for the info Keith...

Off-topic: when is the Chautauqua?

Hi Pete! The annual spring festival is always the third weekend of May, so it will be on May 19th and 20th this year. More information will be forthcoming on the museum's website (www.steamboatmuseum.org) as well as in "Bitts and Pieces", the newsletter which is sent to members. Come on over! We'll be glad to see ya!

The Howard Chautauqua would be a great excuse for us to gather for the first 'river' weekend of the year. I'm planning to drive over to help out in the house, but that certainly leaves time for a meal or two down by the riverside at Kingfish. If they go by the usual schedule, the BELLE won't be running yet, but I suspect we could get some good river talk, and maybe some show and tell sessions, going instead. Ted, you'll be there grinding with the wind, won't you? Anybody up for a chatty Chautauqua???

Keith

I found your "post" regarding the great 1937 flood and while as your parents I too was also fives years old I do have great recollection of this period.
We lived on the west side of Evansville and our house was about four blocks from the Ohio River near the Mead-Johnson factory and river land that would in 1941 become a shipyard building LST.
While at my age I was never aware of the imamate threat. I do however remember one evening when we were taken by automobile to Oakland City, which a small town north of Evansville to stay with some relatives. (I remember well they had an out-house.) How long we were there I cannot recall, but I can recall the day we returned home to 2409 Indiana Street and they were still putting things back in order.
However my story is that my Dad at that time operated a small gas sternwheeler named the "Tom Push" and they did harbor work switching barges at a "coal" unloading facility and Mead-Johnson terminal. Like many other stories I have heard the rescuers authorities enlisted the assistance of the private sector
boat operators to help in the rescue efforts, so with a small barge my Dad was instrumental in saving both human as well as a lot of live-stock. He also boasted that he took the "Tom Push" up the Main Street in downtown Evansville. While it may sound like a "river" story, I am safe with it because it is unlikely that anyone is still around to call me a liar.
Be blessed.

Ed
Dublin, Ohio

Thanks, Ed, for sharing your recollection from a time that changed many lives.

Hello Judy. I have not been in contact with Yvonne but I hope they will have me back. I need to get in touch with her and firm up plans. I will look forward to some steamboat chats. Chautauqua Fest is always a lot of fun. That weekend is free for me but I will be busy the next weekend in Chattanooga at Lake Winnie with an organ rally. We will have organs and grinders from around the country from May 25th till the 28th. Y'all come!

Ted: Yvonne doesn't read this board, but relies upon yours truly for reports. It's a GIVEN that all of us at the museum want you to be "on deck" EVERY YEAR for the spring chautauqual. The lilting melodies you provide add a delightfully festive touch to the grounds and are always enjoyed by the multitudes! And, it's MUCH appreciated that you donate your time for the good of the cause. THANKS!

The "Belle" should be well into her season by 19-20 May, although I guess the public cruises would still be at a minimum. Last year on that weekend they did the "packet boat trip"......perhaps another such event is in the offing?

Like most denizens of the Ohio Valley of my age, I remember the 1937 Flood distinctly. My family had it easy. We lived a hundred feet or more above the flood, but we took in refugees. Their home was isolated by the flood, but not hit by it. After the flood ebbed away, they would not leave! My father finally drove them out, like cattle.
I did see the flood from a number of vantage points. School was out and I had a bicycle, so I saw water coming up through manholes behind the sandbag dikes. My brother helped build the celebrated "whiskey-barrel" pontoon bridge. At the time he worked for a drug store supply firm. They loaded a carton of aspirins and many cases of good old Kentucky Bourbon into his truck and he delivered life-saving potations all over town! The Tom and Chris Greene rode out the flood at their wharfboat at the foot of Third Street, while the Gordon C. Greene lingered in the chute at Towhead Island.
An interesting sidelight is that the further into the past the flood goes, the worse it gets. It was bad enough, for goodness's sake, but not as bad as the present-day amateur historians make it.
My wife was a refugee at a cousin's home in Schnitzelburg (I'll bet you and Carmen don't know about Schnitzelburg, Franz) where they had a lot of fun in an extended family reunion. Their worst trial was returning home to clean up the silt and petroleum mess. They were 'homeless' for about two weeks.
In my opinion, the 1937 Flood was a much greater disaster than the visit of Katrina. A larger area was devastated (from Marietta to Memphis and from two to twenty miles wide) plus the tributaries. It affected far more people. There were NO agencies for help other than the Red Cross and police departments on loan from other cities. The clean-up and repairs were made by those affected, not by FEMA or any other government agencies. They were on their own! Louisville was clean and back in business by Derby Day.

Alan: Thanks for mentioning that the GORDON C. GREENE rode out the '37 flood in the chute at Towhead Island. I had never known this and, just after you posted that information, I purchased some aerial photographs of New Albany and Jeffersonville during the flood. In one of the views, the GORDON is very visible across the river, riding high" at Towhead Island.