107 years have passed since the Great Easter Flood of 1913

Alabama Gov. Emmet O'Neal

This month marks the 107th anniversary of one of the worst severe weather events in the history of Conecuh County and perhaps the nation – the Great Easter Flood of 1913, which was the result of an enormous winter storm system that resulted in hundreds of fatalities and property damage across the nation.

“Coming up out of the southwest, the storm swept with startling suddenness diagonally across the country from northern Texas to western Pennsylvania and New York, bisecting the Mississippi Valley and moving northeastward across the Ohio into the Great Lake Region,” newspapers of the time reported. The storm included high winds, rain, hail and sleet. Knocking out telegraph and telephone lines across the country, the storm resulted in record wind speeds in Detroit (88 mph); Toldeo, Ohio (88 mph); Louisville, Ky. (75 mph); Memphis, Tenn. (64 mph) and Buffalo, N.Y. (64 mph).

The storm system, which raged on and off for at least two weeks, struck a total of 15 states and resulted in fatalities across the country with Alabama being the hardest hit. Fatalities were reported in Sandusky, Ohio; Macon, Miss.; Columbus, Ohio; Jackson, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; Huntsville, Decatur, Hokes Bluff, Gayesville and Shreveport, La.

No community in Alabama suffered more than Lower Peach Tree, a community in Wilcox County of about 400 residents in 1913. Lower Peach Tree was “practically wiped out,” and a total of 27 people were killed and 60 others were injured when a F4 tornado passed through Lower Peach Tree on March 21, which was Good Friday. In addition, up to 30 people were reported missing immediately after the storm. “Practically every coffin which was in stock at Thomasville and Pine Hill were put on wagons and carried to the stricken district” newspapers reported.

The Garland community in Butler County also suffered heavy damage due to floodwaters. Garland, located on the L&N Railroad, “was almost wiped off the map by recent floods and a number of residences and eight or 10 stores were swept away. The property loss will be in excess of $50,000.” The water reached heights of eight to 10 feet in houses. The damage was so bad that Alabama Gov. Emmet O’Neal issued an official appeal for assistance for the community.

“Pink Houston, a prosperous farmer and merchant, at Garland, was a victim of the high waters, which flooded his storehouse to the ceiling, completely ruining his large stock of goods, while his home suffered a like fate, his household effects being also ruined,” The Record reported. “In addition to the heavy losses, several head of valuable livestock were drowned.”

In Brewton, 200 people were left homeless with at least one dead. As of March 20, the flood in Brewton had not crested and had “knocked out the electric lighting plant, knocking out power in the town.” That report noted that the flood was followed by a cold wave. “Business is paralyzed and the struggle at present is for life. Life exists only upon the hills. Houses are swept clean and household goods float in the waters.”

Weather records from that time are largely unavailable, and most of what we know about this event’s effects locally comes from the March 20 and March 27, 1913 editions of The Conecuh Record newspaper. In the March 20 edition of The Record, publisher and editor J.C. Whitcomb also reported that “Chas. Ivey, father of Mayor W.B. Ivey, made a mark on a tree during what is known as the ‘Lincoln Freshet’ and which was the highest stage the water had ever been known to reach in this section, but the flood of last week broke the record by going two feet higher.” The “Lincoln Freshet” was another flood that occurred in 1865, the year of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s death.

The Conecuh Record also reported that heavy amounts of rain fell on Southwest Alabama and a cyclone struck near Burnt Corn on March 19 around 9:30 p.m. that stormed traveled southwest and was about half a mile wide, the paper reported. That cyclone did “considerable damage” and “was accompanied by the heaviest rain ever known in this section.” That storm destroyed a number of residences, including the houses of A.S. Salter, T.H. Salter, Sam Booker, S.D. Hawkins, Rufus Martin, Lee Brantley and the tenant house of Walter Booker and Will Riley.

A ginnery and schoolhouse in that area were partially destroyed, and “several persons narrowly escaped being killed, many being left with nothing but their night clothes on.” A woman named Martha Brantley suffered a broken thigh, and “eight others were crippled at the turpentine works near here.” Several farmers also suffered livestock losses due to the storm.

In the March 20 edition of The Record, under the headline “HIGHWATER,” Whitcomb reported that “not for years, if ever, has this section been visited by such a record-breaking stage of high water, followed by such disastrous results, as that of last week. From almost every section of the country come harrowing accounts of the destruction of property and loss of life. In Conecuh County, one or two persons reported drowned.”

A man who lived on the plantation of W.M. Newton near Sparta drowned on March 15 while trying to save his family from the flood. He caught a cramp and drowned while swimming and pushing a raft loaded with his family toward dry land.

In the community of Huxford’s Still, which was 14 miles west of Evergreen, 15 or 16 houses were demolished by high winds, and eight or 10 people were injured. “Owing to their complete isolation by water, many families are rendered destitute,” Whitcomb reported. Also, the Tomlinson Mill, which was an old landmark, together with an adjoining dam and bridge, were swept away by “raging” floodwaters, Whitcomb said.

Bridges throughout the county were “reported nearly all washed away, while those left standing are more or less damaged.” Despite being several feet underwater, the bridges at Brooklyn over the Sepulga River and Bottle Creek were not washed away. The L&N Railroad was also shut down for five days due to “extensive washouts and serious damage to trestles and bridges” from “raging waters.”

Evergreen’s “high and dry” location protected it from the worst of the floodwaters, but it wasn’t totally unaffected by the storm. The “cyclones” associated with the storm left many Evergreen residents with a “general feeling of uneasiness,” and a number of them considered building storm shelters.

The flood also prevented most farmers from getting their goods to Evergreen, which resulted in slow business for Evergreen merchants. According to one estimate, the local strawberry crop was “damaged to the extent of from $50,000 to $75,000” by the storm and a freeze that followed.

Sheriff C.E. Hines also had to postpone the circuit court’s spring term because of the “heavy expense to the county in rebuilding and repairing bridges and highways,” Whitcomb reported.

Whitcomb applauded the county commission for their response to the storm by saying they “deserve credit for the dispatch with which they repaired the numerous bridges which were washed away by the flood. The Travis steel bridge is reported to be a total wreck.”

Whitcomb also tipped his hat to employees of the L&N Railroad. “The local employees of the L&N road deserve no little credit for the energetic and businesslike manner in which they handled the most difficult and trying situation which confronted them as a result of the high water.”

“About 50 sacks of accumulated mail came in on first train to arrive after the damage to the road had been repaired.”

In the end, if you know any additional details about this storm’s affects on Conecuh County, please let me know by e-mail.