SIX OF THE FATALITIES OF THE BIG ISAAC FLOOD 1918 AT THE CEMETERY
After several requests for me to do an article detailing the Big Isaac Flood of 1918 from readers who purchased our recent book, “History of The Great 1950 Flood,” I decided to run the original article (without corrections) published in THE DODDRIDGE COUNTY REPUBLICAN, May 16, 1918. It is as follows:
BIG ISAAC SWEPT AWAY – (1918)
“Seven Lives Lost in Greatest Disaster Doddridge Has Ever Known. Twelve Others Swept Down Stream but Escape”
“Tis a flash of the lightning, a break of the wave;
man passes from life to his rest in the grave.”
“And so it was on the night of May 7th at that pretty, peaceful little village nestled in among the steep, grass-covered hills of Laurel Run, perhaps a mile and a half down from the fartherest bubbling spring at Middle Island’s source.
A day spent in quiet, uneventful toil; then came the night– night with a cooling, refreshing rain– night with its well-earned rest– and sleep, that “gentle harbinger of death.”
But as the night passed– as the hour of twelve drew near, the rains increased– rains such as the inhabitants of Big Isaac had never known– a torrential downpour that made the tiny brook a raging flood of angry waters. And with the waters, came death.
Measured by the world-tragedies that now demand the daily thoughts of men, the one of which we write may seem small; indeed, but measured by that truer standard, the individual experience, the world knows no greater. Father and mother, with their helpless little ones, caught in the angry, surging waters, drifting to certain death in the dark and starless night, knew all the despair—all of the terror– all of the agony of which the human soul is capable—in those century-long moments—before the tide closed over them forever—before God’s Peace came upon them.
The history will never be written—never. We can only perceive the dim, vague outlines; as for those who lived through it all, memory will furnish an indelible, but confused and imperfect record; as for those who died, their stories are locked in the Eternal Vaults of God.
The valley is so narrow and the stream is so small at Big Isaac, that for many years it has been the custom to build over the little brook- barns, dwellings, shops and business houses. Near the center of the little village a little drain empties from the south side. The five or six houses along its course were undamaged. The destruction was along the main road and the larger brook.
CHARLEY STICKLE RESIDENCE AFTER FLOOD
Farthest up the main stream is the Henry Hitt residence and barn. The former was built above the road and was undamaged; the latter, below the road and across the stream. The barn was washed away, perhaps carrying with it the next building, the Clarence West one-story cottage occupied by Chas. And Ernest Stickel and their two sisters, May and Mayme Stickle, who escaped by wading through dangerously deep and swift water to safety, the two brothers, carrying out their sisters. The barn went to pieces and the greater part of the debris rests against the large three-story Richards’ store building which spans the stream at an elevation of some ten feet in the center. The West residence was crushed against the building below it (third down stream) the Hudkins or Lockard barn, which was only moved down a short distance—perhaps from 12 to 15 feet.
DR. B.J. HUDKINS RESIDENCE
The fourth house down stream, the Hudkins or Lockard five-room cottage was knocked from its foundation—perhaps by the barn last named striking it. Here it was that Mrs. Leroy Enix met her death. She was alone, her husband having gone to Charleston on a business mission. Just how she met her death will ever remain a mystery, but it is generally presumed that when the house started to leave, it was caught in the swift-rushing waters and swept to her doom. Some time the next morning her lifeless body was found in the Leonard Slusser orchard a short distance below the M.E. church, perhaps a half-mile below her home. The dwelling remained on the stream’s bank intact. On a table, a little clock continued to measure the flight of the day—though the hands that wound it were cold in death.
Fifth down stream, we believe, stood the Richards barn, belonging to the store property above mentioned. This was moved a short distance, lodging in the county road, and is believed to be partially the cause of the destruction of the S.E. Bennett house, a substantial cottage opposite the Richards store building and across the county road on a little elevation by deflecting a current against it.
The Bennett cottage was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. E.M. Ferris and son, Olin. All were carried down stream to a point about opposite the Wilcox or Yates Hotel, a distance of some 30 or 40 yards, where they escaped by breaking out a glass door next the steep hill side and wading and climbing to safety. They had barely gotten out when their home went to pieces.
Just below the Wilcox or Yates hotel stood a small store-room on the same property. At the time it was used as a sleeping apartment and was occupied by two teamsters, Russell Zinn and Ralph Hickman of Salem. When it was caught up in the flood, they managed to climb to the rood, held on until it lodged against a tree whose friendly branches rescued them. During their brief trip down stream, the house turned over a time or two, one became entangled in a wire and both boys had a hard fight for life.
The old Bailey blacksmith shop stood next below, squarely across the stream, and it was entirely swept away.
Between the road and the stream just below, stood the S.E. Bennett barn, which was moved from its foundation, back into the county road.
Below the Bennett barn stood the big Carder smith and wagon shop, a substantial structure perhaps 40 feet in length, standing squarely across the stream. This was washed away entirely, probably taking with it the four houses below. The floor and sills, however, lodged a short distance below where it had stood.
GLEN BENNETT HOUSE
Next below the shop, stood the Glen Bennett cottage on the right bank of the stream across from the road. When this dwelling went out it carried with it Mr. and Mrs. Bennett and two children; but the main part of the house held together and lodged in the Slusser orchard a short distance down the creek, where they were all rescued.
Then there was a little unoccupied cottage built across the creek. This was completely washed away and literally crushed to kindling wood.
The home of the ill-fated family stood next—squarely across the path of the wild waters. Father and mother—Mr. and Mrs. James Carder—and their four children, aged perhaps two to nine—Ralph, Thelma, Rexall and Pauline, all were swept from the shores of time—into the Unknown Realm.
The mother’s body was found the next morning in a great drift just above the Emery Slusser dwelling, now occupied by Sam W. Corder who runs the Slusser lease. Just below the same house was the body of the father—James Carder; opposite him on the other bank, was the body of Rexall, Thelma and Pauline were found something like a half-mile, farther down, on the Ida Hickman farm, and Ralph lay near the intersection of the Dry Fork road, just above the Philadelphia Station, perhaps a mile and a half below where their home had stood.
HARVEY WANSTREET
RESIDENCE
The house below the Carder home—the farthest down stream in the ill-fated twon– was occupied by a Harvey Wanstreet, wife and child. They were swept down stream in their home some 500 feet perhaps, and were rescued when it lodged in the county road.
The body of Mrs. Enix was taken to the home of Leonard Slusser to await the coming of her husband, who was returning from Charleston the day following the disaster, and who first learned of the terrible tragedy from the columns of a Parkersburg paper and from two local men who happened to be in Parkersburg that evening.
The body of Mrs. Leory Enix was taken to Salem and the funeral was at Wilsonburg Saturday, May 11th. The unfortunate woman was formerly Miss Mayme Clancy and has relatives both at Wilsonburg and Clarksburg.
The entire Carder family was taken to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sam W. Corder at the Emery Slusser homestead, where they were prepared for burial.
The last sad rites were conducted at the Methodist Episcopal church at 2:00 o’clock p.m. Thursday, May 9th, by Rev. Mart Ross and Rev. Lee Casey. The internment was in the cemetery nearby, in charge of Harvey Morris, funeral director, and the bodies were deposited in three graves, father and mother in one; and two of their dear little ones in each of the other two.
The great throng that attended these services was the largest ever assembled on a funeral occasion in central West Virginia, it being estimated that there were upwards of fifteen hundred in attendance.”
The D.C. Historical Society has several other photos as well as information of the 1918 Flood for which space does not allow. We shall be including the Big Isaac Flood of 1918 in its entirety in our upcoming book, “The Photographic History of Doddridge County.” Please watch for it this fascinating edition of Doddridge County’s history by late spring or early summer. For more information call Patricia Harris at 304 873-1540 or email me at [email protected].
God Bless and Stay Well
Patricia Harris
D.C. Historical Society