Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1953)
Hepprter Gozette Times, Thursday June 11,1 953 Page 3 Waited for Water to Come", ie Visitor Remembers of Flood following article was pre-iand I were visiting in lone at thesenger had gone like the wind to t nf AKers now a home of my step-mother and t of Aumsville, Oregon,! , , luntarily offered to the Ga. grandmother who were llving imps fnr nco i ihi .,. Inear tlie hank of Willow creek. warn others 'danger. I ed too late to be included Vc havi"K driven in from my!a young Rnpri.ii (a .i ......farm in the Eight-mile country lalong wi special Hood section, but printing it here just a's Mr. las written it.) By Spencer Akers It was just fifty years ago 'h of June that the little Heppner, Ore., was over with the greatest disaster er befell any community entire country in propor its population. One person was snatched by this demon. How well I re T in detail every incident ime within range of my ie time of the cloud-burst (suiting flood my family Eight-mile country south of lone. The first report of the flood we had came to us very suddenly when we heard some one galloping up to the front of the house and called out with a loud voice "Get to the hills; the flood is coming; Heppner is washed away." At that time my wife and I were preparing the two little girls for bed. I had Blanche age four on my lap with her clothes stripped down and just putting her nightgown over her head. Nellie, my wife was also attending to the preliminaries prior to putting Alma, age two to bed. I rushed to the door to learn romini? close behind with her precious bundle. Not knowing there was a foot bridge across the creek near the back door which would have permitted us to reach high ground with a few steps, we proceeded up town to Main street which is near the north foot hills fearless Irishman who, that comes down to the valley. hndiThis meant a run 01 aixmt a of the impending learned later that voice was the voice of Bruce Kelly iith Less Matlock witnessed the flood at first hand and having come out intact con ceived the idea of attempting to warn the people down the valley, including the two small towns of Lexington and lone 9 and 18 miles below Heppner. After sup plying themselves with wire cut ters they hurried to a livery stable which was spared, saddled a horse apiece and struck out over the hills, cutting wire fences as they proceeded in an attempt to get ahead of the wall of water and warn the unsuspecting peo- doubt saved many lives. sister and family. We found her there moved to the A. E. Stofani I gathered up Blancne, clonics j" nea at a neighbors house onlfarm npa and all and rusnea oui uie ironij"'f;i-i Krouna suiiering trom door into the dark with Nellieis,1wk. After finding they were surrounded with water they called for helo and .someone threw them a rope and it was tied around my sister and she was dragged ashore. Her hus band, August Lundell with super human effort climbed a tree with three small children in his arms. This happened to be one of the few trees that withstood ihn:roses. The Wm. Melena. Garland surging water. iSwanson and Delbert Emert quarter of a mile, Nellie soon gave out so I took both the girls and proceeded on the best I could with my added burden. Nellie being relieved of her charge was able to keep up with me. Soon a man came running by and re lieved me of Alma which allowed me to make better progress. After reaching Main street we found Les and Bruce there calmly tll. ine a bunch 01 excitea citizens what they knew about the doom ed city of Heppner. No one tar ried long to learn details but mulied on to higher ground far Morgan, Fossil defeated lone in a base ball game here Sunday. The Garden Club made a gar den tour in cars Friday June 5. jThey first visited the yards and the city park in town and then went in the country where they inspected the yards of Lee Beck- ner ami u. Hermann which are I noted for their many variety of ltlp roses. The Wm ISwanson and We worked till dark helping to'Rroum,s nnve some fine land nle helow. Rv snner-human ef fort and with long-winded horses Recognizing Bruce I rushed up to more of the particulars but of thev out-ran the on-comimr flood, rum ana roiti mm uiai my step- course, like Paul Revere, the mes- By this act of heroism they no mother and grandmotner were moi coming anu asKeu mm u ne would lend me his horse so I could go back and see what had become of them. This he kindly did. I mounted and hurried back and called to them and they ans wered from the other side of the creek. They had rushed out the back door and crossed the foot bridge thinking of course we would follow. It did not take me long to deliver the foaming steed to his master. I could imagine the flood swallowing me up at any moment. After getting the family set tied with the rest of the people of the town we waited for the flood to arrive. It was very 'cloudy and pitch dark. We could hear the blood-curdling sound of the water as it plowed its way through town. There were no lives lost in lone, thanks to Les and Bruce, but many would have hurried out into the dark and drowned if they had not been warned. No houses 'were washed away but the whole valley was flooded. After the water had subsided somewhat and it had begun to get a little light my brother Med, the village blacksmith and I waded through water and slush to his barn to get my team and hack and try and make it to Hepp ner. We were anxious about our sister and family there. The horses stood in water up to their bellies all night and we found the hack turned up side down in the barn lot but intact. We saw on our way to Heppner many bddies that had been carried out to the road by searchers. Arriving at the stricken city we found it a sham bles. At the depot below town we saw a great drift of parts of houses box cars, trees, barbed wire entanglements, etc. ect. We first went to find out about our , c, le leader ea c0 er- I nUvi i ; ! 1 effee00.,, floral Jel l U'Z- llU'h 'S . 1 ia.it y 5.T . , : ,1 - I I V ArTfvl JMTi remove a number of bodies from the drifts, then started back to lone. On our way back we met a hack load of prominent men from Portland who had come as far as lone on the train but could go no further as the road was washed out. Among them was Ed Ashbaugh, a county commis- siuiici nuu niici gone io rortland to prder furniture for the new court house. Ed stopped us to inquire about his wife and eight children. It was very hard for me to tell him they were all drowned. To those who might be interested to know what became of the man who lost his family while doing his duty toward the county, I will say he'is an invalid and living in Portland. After taking my family home I came back and helped for seve ral days to bury the dead. I re member 1 had a grave about half dug when they brought old black smith, Mr. Gunn in a rough nine box and put him in it. A number of years ago I made an attempt to obtain a full list of the names and number of victims and was able to obtain the names of 203. The flood district is all built up now and we are hoping that a disaster like that will never happen again. scaping. They went to the Mar ion Palmer home on Rhea Creek and found a very picturesque yard. Then the trip was made to the Gooseberry country where they stopped at the Charles Carl son place to see the creeping fes cue lawn and the caragana hedge the rockery and shrubs at the Oscar Peterson yard, the wind break at the Wm. Bergstrom's and flowers and fruit at the Carl Bergstrom's. A pot luck dinner was served at the Valby Lutheran Church at noon. Several Alanthus trees have been set out around the church. A business meeting was held after the dinner with installa tion of officers. Mrs. Omar Riet man was installing officer. Mrs. Fredrick Martin the new presi dent will attend the Garden Club State Convention at McMinneville this week. BILL JONES DIDN'T lone News The Leo Crabtree familv of Salem are moving on the Lewis Halvorsen place below town. Mr. and Mrs. Noel Streeter who lived TOM SMITH DID SAVE.. . Sure, Tom Smith saves at First. Like his neighbor Dill Jones, he hated the chore of pushing a lawn mower. Now, Smith has a power mower . . . and SAVINGS did it. You too can buy many of the things you want and need if you save regularly, every payday. HEPPNER BRANCH RATIONAL DANK OF PORTLAND "If 1"J BUIID ORGON TOGETHER"' UUU IIMtM MfOlll INIUtANCI COIfOMIOM Case Furniture Co. hall tese things uou want.. wr? even . in Fisher Body Quality! It's the only iy by Fisher in the low-price field. And it's even more outstanding in styling, comfort and conveniences, in quality. . in High-Compression Power! 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This famous ovenware, which comes with the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval, has a two year guarantee. COME EARLY. LADIES. AS THE SUPPLY IS LIMITED TO THE FIRST 1001 - -1 LUMBER C0I1 PHONE 6-9212 HEPPNER WE LIKE TO HELP FOLKS BUILD -SATURDAY, JUNE 13, ONLY-
