Tag: Extreme Weather

Maude and Alfred Waters, Part Two

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The May 1904 news article announcing the marriage of Maude Bevers and Alfred N. Waters described the two of them as “prominent people” of the small town of De Smet, South Dakota.  (You can see the news article in Part One.) Each of them was involved in a variety of social groups and community pursuits.  For example, Maude was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Red Cross and a philanthropic educational society.  Waters held civic roles and promoted improvements in their county (Kingsbury) and in their town, which as of 1906 had “a population a little in excess of 1,000 souls.”1

After her wedding, even though her husband was not a member of the church, Maude continued her activities in the Methodist church, having become a member in November 1898.  The records of the women’s group of the church noted that Maude served as secretary and 4th Vice in 1904 and 1905, respectively.  Another role in which she served was the leader of the choir, this she did for years before and after her marriage.2  In addition, “… for many years [she] was a member of a mixed quartet that sang for funerals in various churches of the town and area.”3

On a Friday night in March 1907, there was a Demorest medal contest held at the church, six young ladies competing for a Silver medal.4  Throughout the evening, musical selections were performed as well as the orations by the contestants.  One of the selections, which was entitled “David and Goliath,” was performed by a ladies’ quartette in which Maude sang a part. 

The Demorest Medal program was an educational program through which young people and community members learned about the tenets of the prohibition movement.  In 1886, W. Jennings Demorest inaugurated oratory contests, utilizing subject matter promoting the prohibition of liquor traffic.  The work began in New York City, then was introduced in California and within three years had spread throughout the United States and into several foreign nations.

Six to eight contestants competed at the local level and the winner would be awarded a Silver medal.  At the next level, six Silver medalists would compete for a Gold medal, then six Gold medalists would compete for a Grand Gold medal.  At the highest level six Grand Gold medalists competed for a Diamond medal.

In 1895, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (W. C. T. U.) adopted the Demorest Medal program and in the following years expanded the topics of the oratory books.  “Recitation books, embracing orations on Prohibition, Total Abstinence, Scientific Temperance, Anti-Narcotics, Franchise, Social Purity, etc., were published; medals were designed with mottoes and emblems of the W. C. T. U., and circulars setting forth the plans of this new system sent out to all the States in the Union.”5  As of January 1907, the contest publications had been disseminated into Australia, South Africa, India, Canada, Mexico and the Philippine Islands as well.

News clipping from the January 29, 1909 issue of Kingsbury County Independent

The Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist church rotated its meetings among its members.  In the first week of February 1909 the society met at Maude’s home.6  For a fundraising project that year, they produced a cookbook, entitled Kitchen Echoes.  “The venture was a very profitable one,”7 as it included advertisements for local businesses in addition to its recipe entries.  Waters Land and Loan Company, the real estate company of Maude’s husband, was one of the business sponsors, advertising that the company had the “Best Bargains in Grain, Dairy and Stock Farms.”  Maude and her sister Gertrude both submitted recipes.  Gertrude’s recipes were for Potato Salad and Sugar Cookies.  (See Gertrude’s recipes in Aunt Gertie.)  Maude’s entries were for Angel Custard and Mrs. Power’s Ginger Snaps.  The recipe for Ginger Snaps honored Elizabeth Power, a former resident and pioneer settler of De Smet, arriving in June 1880 along with her husband and four children.  Shortly before the recipe was published in Kitchen Echoes, Mrs. Power had passed away on February 11, 1909.  Her obituary stated: “Mrs. Power was one of those motherly women who everybody likes, always ready to answer sick calls, and never so happy as when doing some kind deed.  She was a life long and consistent member of the Roman Catholic church, and her remains lie in the Catholic cemetery at Bellingham [Washington].”8  Two years later, in January 1911, the Methodist aid society met again at Maude’s house.9  An entry in the treasurer’s book of the church’s women’s group indicates that Maude hosted a supper in that same month which brought in $6.60.  In 2025, an equivalent amount of money is approximately $225.00.

Angel Custard.—Separate the yolks and whites of two eggs, beat the whites to a stiff froth, adding a few drops of flavoring.  Beat the yolks, add two teaspoons corn starch wet with a little cold milk, and stir into a pint of boiling milk which has been sweetened to taste (about two-thirds cup of sugar), adding a pinch of salt the last thing.  When thickened and boiling pour the custard over the beaten whites of eggs and stir rapidly a few moments.  Delicious either hot or cold.—Maude Waters.

Mrs. Powers’ Ginger Snaps.—One-half cup butter (scant), one-half cup lard (scant), one cup white sugar, one cup molasses, one teaspoon soda dissolved in one tablespoon water, one egg, one tablespoon ginger, a pinch of salt.  Flour to mix quite stiff.—Maude Waters.

Maude (nee Bevers) Waters, estimated date 1910

From the time that A. N. Waters settled in De Smet, he served in numerous civic capacities and promoted improvements in the town, county and state.  A few of his responsibilities during the year 1905 give us a glimpse of his involvements in the local community at that time, as well as in the broader region.

  • April 1905 – At a meeting of the stockholders, Waters was elected to be a director on the board of the Athletic Association.10  Two years later, he was elected to be the president of the association, which was reported to have a large membership.11
  • August 1905 – While serving as mayor of De Smet, Waters was appointed by the South Dakota governor to be a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress which met at Portland, Oregon from August 16 to 19.12  This congress was organized to promote the commercial interests of the states and territories west of the Mississippi River.  The following year, Waters was appointed again to the congress which met November 20 to 23 in Kansas City, Missouri.13
  • September 1905 – The county commissioners made Waters the chairman of a committee for the purpose of creating an agricultural exhibit to represent Kingsbury County at the state fair held in Huron, South Dakota.14  He consented to procure the materials for the exhibit and was authorized to appoint members to the committee from different parts of the county.  Waters and the committee members did not receive a salary, but the county commissioners authorized payment for the cost of transporting the materials for the exhibit to Huron.  
  • November 1905 – A real estate dealers association was formed to which Waters was elected secretary of the board.  The purpose of the association was “promoting and advancing the interests of [South Dakota] by devising ways and means to advertise its resources and encourage immigration, etc.”15  Four months later, at the March 1906 meeting of the association, which had about 250 member firms by that time, Waters gave a speech during the evening banquet which was entitled, “Had We Better Hang Together or Hang Seperate.“ [sp.]16  Moving ahead with their aims, in March 1907, Waters and about 25 members of the association met with the governor of South Dakota and the Immigration Commissioner “to consider co-operative advertisement of the state. … The association indorsed a proposition made by the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway to furnish a car and superintend and bear the expense of making a traveling exhibit of products of South Dakota farms on its line, provided the exhibit be furnished by the real estate men.”17

Waters had begun his career in real estate investment in 1880 when he arrived in De Smet, the same year that the town was founded. Thirty years later, he was continuing his career in that profession. A few of Waters’ transactions are noteworthy:

  • On April 16, 1909, Waters Land and Loan Company made a ten-year lease with the United States for the use of “the first floor of the one story … brick premises, known as ‘Waters Building’ situated on the North side of Second Street between Calumet and Joliet avenues.”18 (The consideration was $325.00 per annum in quarter yearly payments.) The Waters Building had been built in 1888-89 by the Kingsbury Abstract Company and Waters Land and Loan Company had purchased it in 1906. (More about this transfer is in Part One.) The De Smet post office had occupied a space in the building since at least 1893.19 In 1909, an extension was built onto the Waters building and the post office moved into it. The lease described above commenced the occupation of the post office in the extension. “The new post office was of fireproof construction, 25×45 feet and fitted with the latest style of furnishings. The building was heated by steam and supplied with gas and water….”20
  • About 1910, Waters owned a house at the corner of Lyle Avenue and Front Street NE.  It was the former home of Fred Dow but had been relocated from its original site.  Fred Dow had sold his farmstead and grove of trees to Waters in the early 1900s.  Waters had moved the house from the Dow farm to the corner lot across the road on Front Street NE.21 Fred Dow’s farmstead was the location of the “surveyors house” in which the Charles Ingalls’ family lived when Ingalls was hired by Dakota Central Railway in 1879. The surveyors’ house was moved in 188422 to its current site in the town of De Smet. Therefore, it had not been sitting on the property when Waters purchased the Dow farm. The surveyors’ house was purchased by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in 1967 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.23
  • On September 28, 1915, Alfred purchased lot #32 of De Smet from Caroline A. Swanzey (formerly Caroline A. Ingalls) for $62.50.24  This was author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s sister, known as Carrie in Wilder’s Little House books.  In Standard Atlas of Kingsbury County, South Dakota, published in 1909, the owner of lot #32 of De Smet is noted as C. P. Ingalls, Caroline’s father who had passed away in 1902.

The above clipping is from a map in the 1909 edition of Standard Atlas of Kingsbury County, South Dakota.  It shows that Waters owned 320 acres directly east of De Smet.  The lower half of this property had been a tree claim filed by Fred N. Dow, and to the east of F. N. Dow’s claim, his father, James C. Dow, had filed a claim on a quarter section, which in 1909 Waters also owned.25  Through a cursory examination of the 1909 atlas, 14 properties in the county were found with Waters’ name on them (in the townships of Le Seur, Spirit, Manchester, De Smet, Esmond and Mathews).  One of the properties that Waters owned had been the homestead of Almanzo Wilder (Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband); Wilder had sold the property to Dakota Loan and Investment in 1891, a company in which Waters was a partner.26  It is not known at this time when Waters became the sole owner.  That property can be seen on the above clipping in the upper left corner.  In addition to her husband’s properties, the atlas also indicated that Maude owned two adjoining quarters in Manchester Township.

The United States census taken in April 1910 recorded Alfred as 54 years old and working on his own account in his own real estate office.27  Maude was 35 years old and did not have an occupation.  In the record, besides Maude and Alfred, there was a housekeeper living in their home, named Izora Youmans [sp.], who was 37 years old, single and had been born in New York.

For six years, Maude’s mother, who lived a half block to the east of the Waters home with Maude’s father and sister Gertrude, had been impaired following an operation from which she did not completely heal.  Two years after the operation, her mother developed diabetes.  “All during her illness, and especially during the last months when almost helpless and suffering great pain everything that could be done to relieve and give pleasure was done for her by loving hands of her own family and friends.”28  No doubt Maude had been involved in her mother’s care until her passing on July 14, 1910.29

On the last Saturday of May 1910, Waters was invited to dine at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Tinkham. Along with Waters and Tinkham, the other five guests were men of De Smet who had lived through the “hard winter” of 1880-81. They all had arrived in Kingsbury County in the winter and spring of 1880, except Waters who hadn’t arrived until August. When early snow storms commenced in the fall, the men stayed in the newly built buildings of the fledgling town, which had about 14 businesses.30 Recurring blizzards would cover the railroad tracks that winter, eventually closing the track altogether from January to May. About 50 families (including single men) wintered in the town. Thirty years later at the gathering held in the Tinkham home:
The varied experiences of that hard winter were all recounted. Of one thing our readers can be certain, however, and that is the dinner served on this occasion was not on the half-ration plan of some of the dinners eaten by the gentleman [sp.]during that never to be forgotten winter of [1880-81]when supplies ran low and wheat had to be ground in coffee mills, and when sugar for coffee was kept in a jewel case.31

During that trying winter, Waters boarded in the home of Arthur and Jennie Sherwood. A. S. Sherwood “is mentioned in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter as one of the few families wintered in for that historic experience. He and his wife … were among the few married couples in the town that winter. Some of the bachelors roomed and boarded there including A. N. Waters, in a house so small that blankets separated the beds in a sleeping room.”32 Waters himself was not mentioned in Wilder’s The Long Winter but he was mentioned in her autobiographical manuscript, Pioneer Girl, which relates the following story:
There was in town a lawyer named Waters who had expected to go east early in the winter to be married but had got caught by the storms.

Now the wedding day was drawing near and no way to get transportation out. He decided to walk and … he started before daylight one morning as the blizzard wind was dying down and the sky cleared.

It was a scant day’s calm this time and we were afraid he was caught in the next storm, but he walked the miles to Brookins [sic] safely and after resting walked on to Tracy.

The next spring we learned that he arrived safely in time for his wedding, but both feet were so badly frozen that he was unable to walk on that day. However his feet recovered and he came back in the spring, bringing his wife with him.33

The above story, of course, refers to Waters’ first wife, Josephine E. Humphrey, whereas Maude was his second wife. Waters obituary adds details to this account of the winter of 1881:
… he boarded with the Arthur Sherwood family, “Sixteen of them in a house sixteen feet square,” [Waters] called it. He lived here through the Hard Winter and in the spring of 1881 made his famed hike along the railroad track in company with a brother of Mrs. Arthur Sherwood. The whole country had been snow-bound for months and the two young men struck out for the East, hauling a sled, and in four days reached Tracy, secured a team and floundered thru to Sleepy Eye, where they were again disappointed in train service and Mr. Waters continued on alone to New Ulm.34

Another perspective on this event was recounted by the editor of De Smet News in 1921:
… The big snows of the winter of 1880-1881 caused such a blockade thruout the country that after the first of January there was no train from De Smet east until the following May. Along in March Mr. Waters became anxious to get out of the country and keep a date in the east, so he started on foot over the snow banks, carrying a hundred letters from De Smet people to their relatives and friends back home. He walked as far as Tracy, covering the distance in four days. There a team of mules hitched to a sleigh was secured and several men made use of the outfit to get as far as Sleepy Eye. At that point a train was boarded and they were scheduled to leave next morning; but a storm prevented and they were there a whole week. Mr. Waters became uneasy at the delay and started out alone, hoofing it to New Ulm. There the road was open and he was soon on his way east.35

Charles H. Tinkham, the host of the 1910 gathering of De Smet pioneers, had arrived in De Smet in the spring of 1880.  Soon after his arrival Tinkham opened a furniture and houseware store, and he also engaged in undertaking.36   During the “hard winter,” “Tinkham was a member of the ‘bachelor’s club’ who lived with William Crook, sleeping on boards laid across the ceiling joists.”37 

Among the guests attending the dinner was Charles L. Dawley, who settled in De Smet in May 1880.  As an agent for a lumber company, he began “selling loads of lumber to the new settlers. He set up an office tent and sold lumber from railroad cars until an office and shed could be built. During the Hard Winter, he boarded with Mrs. Garland, and began courting her daughter Florence.”38  Florence was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s teacher during that winter.  Within a few years, Dawley left the lumber business to go into real estate with Waters, a partnership which lasted 15 years.  Waters, Dawley and Alfred Thomas were associates who established the Dakota Loan and Investment Company, “which continued the loan business previously run by Alfred Waters, doing a general real estate and chattel loan business.”39 Waters and Dawley took full control of the business in 1887.

The other guests were Charles E. Ely, Edward H. Couse, Daniel H. Loftus and John H. Carroll.  About April 1880, Ely was a lumber agent also, selling lumber in De Smet from a rail car.  Subsequently, he established the town’s first lumber yard.40  He was married, but had not yet moved his family to De Smet when the winter storms came later that year.  Couse, who was also married when he came to De Smet and a Civil War veteran, was the owner of a hardware store.41  Loftus was a partner in a general merchandise store in 1880, and in February 1881 in the midst of the “hard winter”, a local newspaper reported, “the first grist of wheat was ground in De Smet on the 5th, by Dan Loftus. Dan makes a fine miller.”42

John H. Carroll was the first clerk of courts in Kingsbury County (April 1880) and he was the first postmaster, later he would become the first mayor of De Smet.43 His homestead adjoined the town of De Smet. On that property, Carroll would plat 10 blocks as residence blocks which became an addition to the original town. Waters would eventually purchase lots in Carroll’s addition, and on those lots, in 1905, build the home in which he and Maude would live. Another property that Carroll at one point owned was the northeast corner lot at Calumet Avenue and Second Street. Waters and his partners of the Kingsbury Abstract Company purchased it from Carroll and then constructed the building that many years later, through a series of transactions, would be owned by Waters Land and Loan in 1906. (See more about the Waters residence and the business building in Part One.)

Part Three will continue the community activities of Maude and Alfred Waters.

1 “The Growth of De Smet,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, March 23, 1906.

2 Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed., “A History of the Methodist Church,” De Smet Yesterday and Today (De Smet, South Dakota: De Smet News, printer, 1976): 144.

3 “Mrs. A. N. Waters, Native of England, Resident 60 Years,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (July 10, 1958) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

4 “Items from De Smet,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, March 22, 1907, 3, Newspapers.com.

5 Cornelia T. Jewett, “History of Contest Work,” The National Advocate (New York, January 1907): 1-2, https://books.google.com/books?id=HwFQAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.

6 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), January 29, 1909, 5, Newspapers.com.

7 Poppen, “A History of the Methodist Church,” 144.

8 Gina Terrana, “Biography of Thomas P. Power,” http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/7859.

9 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), December 30, 1910, 8, Newspapers.com.

10 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), April 21, 1905, 5, Newspapers.com.

11 Citizen-Republican (Scotland, South Dakota), April 4, 1907, 2, Newspapers.com.

12 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 11, 1905, 5, Newspapers.com.

13 Hot Springs (South Dakota) Weekly Star, November 9, 1906, 2, Newspapers.com.

14 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1905, 4, Newspapers.com.

15 “Real Estate Dealers,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, January 5, 1906, 3, Newspapers.com.

16 “Real Estate Men Meet,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, March 15, 1906, 3, Newspapers.com.

17 “To Exhibit Car Load of South Dakota Products,” Citizen-Republican (Scotland, South Dakota), April 4, 1907, 2, Newspapers.com.

18 The Heritage House, LLC, “Abstract of Title,” Transfer Number 31.

19 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “post office/post-office,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/13454.

20 Cleaveland, “post office/post-office.”

21 “Life’s End Comes at 103 for Mrs. Fred Dow, Oldest Resident County,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (April 26, 1973) in Nancy Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Dow/Glover (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/dow_f_cemetery.pdf.

22 De Smet Leader (March 22, 1884) in Nancy S. Cleaveland, “surveyors’ house,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/13817.

23 Cleaveland, “surveyors’ house.”

24 State of South Dakota, Kingsbury County, Deed Record No. 50, 77.

25 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “surveyors’ house.”

26 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “claim,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/10912.

27 “United States, Census, 1910”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPXB-BGS : Wed Oct 15 05:57:53 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred N Waters and Maud Waters, 1910.

28 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), July 22, 1910, 4, Newspapers.com.  

29 Ancestry.com. South Dakota, U.S., Death Index, 1879-1955 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

30 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “The Long Winter – historical perspective,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/5096.
31 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), June 3, 1910, 5, Newspapers.com.
32 Aubrey Sherwood, “The Sherwoods of De Smet” in De Smet Yesterday and Today by Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed. (De Smet, South Dakota: De Smet Bicentennial Committee, 1976): 116.
33 Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Hard Winter,” Pioneer Girl (unpublished manuscript) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.
34 “A. N. Waters, Pioneer, Laid to Rest Here Sunday,” De Smet (South Dakota) News (September 2, 1927) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.
35 Carter Sherwood, ed., De Smet (South Dakota) News (November 4, 1921) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

36 “Charles H. Tinkham,” Memorial and Biographical Record (Chicago: George A. Ogle and Co., publisher, 1898): 435.

37 Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Tinkham (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/tinkham_cemetery.pdf.

38 Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Dawley (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/dawley_cemetery.pdf.

39 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “bank,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/15076.

40 De Smet (South Dakota) News (August 25, 1916) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Ely (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/ely_cemetery.pdf.

41 George W. Kingsbury, “Edward H. Couse,” History of Dakota Territory, vol. 4 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1915): 1048.

42 Kingsbury County (South Dakota) News (February 24, 1881) in Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Loftus / Fritzel (2015): http://www.pioneergirl.com/loftus_cemetery.pdf.

43 Nancy S. Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Carroll/Imus (2015): http://pioneergirl.com/carroll_cemetery.pdf.

Reminiscences of Uncle Bob, Part Four

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In March 1913, Charles and Maggie Daily moved their family from a farm near Topeka, Kansas (see Reminiscences of Uncle Bob, Part 3) back to Omaha, Nebraska.  Charles probably took employment at a company he had worked for previously, in the 1890s.  Whether he started working there immediately or later in the year, by the time the 1914 Omaha city directory was issued, he was a foreman at West Omaha Coal and Ice Company.1 When the Dailys arrived in Omaha, they intended to move into the home that they owned in the neighborhood called West Side.  Renters were still living in their house so they had to wait until the first of April to move into it.  During the interim, tragedy struck the city.  At about age 84, their son Robert recounted the event:

Interviewer:  … Let’s see, the tornado in Omaha —

Uncle Bob:  That was on the 23rd of March.

Interviewer:  And I believe your house was damaged?

Uncle Bob:  Yeah, it was. Our home was completely gone except one side wall of our own home.  We were, we moved up there just, see, 10 days before the, uh, tornado and we had to wait till the first of the month.  Easter Sunday, see, uh, the tornado was on Easter Sunday, and we had to wait till the first of the month to be able to get in our own home.  So, we stored all our household goods in Grandma’s basement.  She had a 13-room house, a full basement apartment underneath.  An’ o’ course, when the storm hit, why, it took a lot.  But when it finally did move, why it just crushed the foundation down and we just lost all our household goods, see.

Interviewer:  Ohhh!

Uncle Bob:  It set that big house down.  An’ our own home was two blocks north of there and all that was left was just one side wall.  The house went completely away from there.  We never found it, see.2

The following photographs of damaged homes are from the interviewer’s collection.  They are not labeled, so it is not known whose homes these are.

On the evening of Easter Sunday, six tornadoes struck eastern Nebraska and southwestern Iowa. The most destructive of these raced through Omaha, striking 2000 homes and demolishing 750 of them, thus displacing over 2000 residents and killing 94 people.3  The tornado entered the city from the southwest, immediately striking the workers’ cottage area of West Side where the Daily home was located as well as the homes of relations of the Dailys:

As the whirlwind raced over West Lawn and the Bohemian cemeteries toppling tombstones, it struck the worker cottage area from 53rd and Francis to 51st and Center and on to Leavenworth Street.  It splintered a long strip of houses, killing eight people in the 48th and Pacific neighborhood.  A score of fires broke out due to ruptured gas lines.  The amount of debris in the streets, at times concealing fire hydrants, prevented firefighters from responding effectively.  Fortuitously, evening rains squelched the fires throughout the city.4

Within the path of the twister were the homes of:

Charles and Maggie Daily at 1022 S. 46th.5

Maggie’s brother Harman Bonewitz at 1048 S. 48th with his wife Cornelia and son Roscoe.6

Maggie’s mother Josephine (nee Smith) Bonewitz at 4817 Pacific (where Maggie’s brother Sidney Bonewitz was also living).7

Maggie’s aunt Joanna Gantz at 4909 Hickory with her husband John and daughter Adda.8

Joanna Gantz’ son, J. Harmon Gantz at 4850 Hickory, with his wife Helen and two daughters, Dorothy and Bernice.9

Thankfully, none of these families lost lives to the whirlwind. But unfortunately, West Omaha Coal and Ice, Charles’ employer, which was located at 4801 Leavenworth10 would also have been in the path of the tornado.

A map of the tornado’s path through the city,
published by The Omaha Daily Bee11

Soon after the tornado passed through the city, Omaha’s Mayor James C. Dahlman issued a proclamation:

To the People of Omaha: A great calamity has struck our city.  Many lives and homes have been destroyed.  The authorities, with the assistance of Major C. F. Hartman of Fort Omaha, with 200 troops, are doing all that can be done tonight in guarding property and rescuing the dead and injured.

Tomorrow it will be necessary to properly patrol this district, which extends over several miles of territory, and until matters can be adjusted, so that property may be protected and men have an opportunity to clear the wreckage.  No one will be allowed inside the lines unless properly authorized, so I call on the public generally to be patient.

Thousands of volunteers are doing all they can tonight.  I appeal to the people in this hour of distress to house and feed all that need help until other arrangements can be made.“12

Throughout the night, reporters were busy gathering information and by the time the printing presses started at about 4:00 A. M., the front page of the Morning World-Herald was full of descriptions of the destruction caused by the tornado, as well as preliminary lists of the deceased and the injured, stating where the injured were recovering.  Portions of the front-page article follows:

Cyclonic conditions, unknown to all, prevailed over the Missouri valley during the day, and a gigantic twister suddenly appeared, at 5:45 o’clock, as a manifestation of this disturbance.

The wind demon came careening over the prairies from the southwest and drove a diagonal course through the residence district to the north east ….

The huge, fashionable residences of the denizens of West Farnam hill suffered alike with the simple cottages of West Side and the substantial homes of Bemis Park and northern Omaha. …

Omaha has long been regarded as tornado-proof, on account of its barricade of surrounding hills, but this imaginary protection was swiftly proven a flimsy fabric indeed.  The twister, reaping a harvest over half a mile wide, swept over the hilltops and down the valleys with the neat and deadly precision of some omnipotent mowing machine. …

… Streets and boulevards are so enmeshed in wreckage that travel, even on foot, is practically impossible, while street car and telephone service is almost nil.  Automobiles and other vehicles are likewise nearly helpless ….13

Relief efforts began immediately, including the organization of a Citizens Relief Committee, which had the responsibility of disbursing funds and supplies, such as food, clothing, fuel and other necessities.  “A sub-committee investigated aid requests using vehicles donated by wealthy Omahans; upon verification, requisitions sped to the destination in trucks loaned by businesses and in horse-drawn wagons lent by the Army.”14 During the following months, over $350,000 in aid was dispensed.

The city established neighborhood relief stations to distribute donated food and clothing; teachers opened additional stations in schools for relief and to act as shelters and congregants did so in their churches.  The state contributed $100,000, some of which went for low-interest reconstruction loans.  The Omaha World-Herald resurrected its “Tow Line” appeal and collected approximately $50,000 towards the relief effort.  Several hotels offered free lodging to the poor, and the Real Estate Exchange worked to prevent gouging on rents.15

A relief station at 48th and Leavenworth,16 near the Daily property

Everyone in the city was involved in cleaning up after the tornado because of “a fine, brownish dust that entered homes through the smallest of openings and settled on furniture and carpets.”17 Organized clean-up efforts began the first weekend of April in order to remove the wreckage in the streets and lots:

Over 10,000 volunteers met at 27 locations in the affected areas to pitch debris into trucks that removed it to designated dumping areas.  Groups volunteered in units of college students, school children and factory workers.  The newspapers praised the heroic effort that cleared the ruble, made the streets passable and precipitated a rapid rebuilding effort.18

A Restoration Committee handled the reconstruction effort:

This body secured large amounts of money from local financiers and likewise made trips to Chicago, where they secured additional funds from the railroads running into Omaha.  For the purposes of restoration they loaned money without interest for a term of years and in some instances practically gave it away.19

Robert explained how his family rebuilt their homes:

Uncle Bob:  So, Uncle Finley, that’s mother’s brother, older brother, he was a carpenter. [Harman was his first name, Finley was his middle name.]  Always had carpentry.  In the first place was, we had to build up Grandma’s home, see.

Interviewer:  Um hmm.

Uncle Bob:  Build up a cottage, we built up a cottage for Grandma.  An’ that’s where I worked all the time that summer, ten cents an hour, cleaning bricks and cleaning – [chuckling]

Interviewer:  You’d’ve been 13?

Uncle Bob:  Yeah, I was coming on 13, not til May, see. …  Built Grandma’s house.  And uh, then built, well, first we built a, uh, called it a barn, but when it come right down, it was just about the size of a one stall garage, see.

Interviewer:  Mmm.  Um hmm.

Uncle Bob:  We lived in it.  There was a loft in it ….  An’ that’s where we lived while uncle was building Grandma’s house, and then built our house. … We had a nine-room house.  Took that out, see.

Interviewer:  So, you left a new house in Omaha when you moved up here?

Uncle Bob:  Well, it [wasn’t] that new.  From 1913 to 1915.  Yeah.

Interviewer:  Two years.

Uncle Bob:  … An’ we built another house in 1914 there.  Uncle had a, had a house in lot, just in the second lot, uh, can’t tell you the direction, got different direction down there.  But then there was a house in between our home and his, one that he rented.  Of course, it [the tornado] damaged that one there, so he sold it to dad an’ then he tore that down to build a cottage up there, jus’ small four-room cottage.20

The newly built home of Charles and Maggie Daily one year after the tornado. (March 1914)

Besides helping to re-build homes, Robert continued attending public school.  Robert related the difficulties he encountered during his schooling because the curriculums of various schools were not comparable.

Interviewer:  Now, would you, you would have been through school, or you would have been through 8th grade?

Uncle Bob:  No, I’d been through so much, I’d had so much free schooling, see.  I didn’t, I didn’t graduate until 1915 from the seventh grade. …

Interviewer:  I see.  Okay.

Uncle Bob:  ‘Cause I’d had free schooling.  From moving in from the farm, coming into town, they sent me back. [The Dailys moved from a farm west of Omaha into the city in 1908 when Robert was 7 years old.]

Interviewer:  Um hmm.

Uncle Bob:  Well, I was only in there 15 months, and then we moved to Kansas.  When we moved to Kansas, Kansas had a different set up, see.  So, I had to pick up that.  Well, I was [down there] four years, an’ then come back to Omaha, and they sent me back again, because I didn’t have the education ….  I had lots of free schooling, though.

Interviewer:  Did you, did you ever finish eighth grade?

Uncle Bob:  No.

Interviewer:  You didn’t.

Uncle Bob:  Just 7th grade.  … after I graduated from the 7th grade, I did put in from September until 1st of March, that’s how much, in 8th grade.

…

Uncle Bob:  And Oranna, she started in – at that time we had a two-year high school and a four-year high school.  One was more of a business [school] and Oranna wasn’t cut out for that kind of work.  After she went there, well, she wasn’t interested in educating, she was always interested in more, want’n t’raise a family and –

Interviewer:  Housework.

Uncle Bob:  That was her turf.21

A high school Robert’s older sister Oranna may have attended was the High School of Commerce.

At this time, many students’ school careers ended with eighth grade graduation. Students who went on to high school were preparing to enter a profession that required college and generally came from more well-to-do families. The High School of Commerce offered classes in typing, stenography, telegraphy, bookkeeping, commerce law, etc., that prepared students for opportunities for better paying jobs in the business field. The program originated in the basement of Omaha’s Central High School in 1911, but the response was so great that within a year, classes were moved to the old Leavenworth Elementary School building at 17th and Leavenworth Streets. The school quickly became overcrowded and was replaced in 1922 by Technical High School.22

High School of Commerce, Omaha, Nebraska, 191222

After the Dailys had lived in Omaha for two years, at Maggie’s urging Charles found another farm for them and on April 10, 1915, the family headed to northeast South Dakota.23  Robert’s reminiscences will continue.

  1. __________, Omaha City Directory Including South Omaha 1914 (Omaha, Nebraska: Omaha Directory Co., 1914): 250.
  2. M. R. Wilson, transcription of Robert Lee Uncle Bob Interview by R. Thiele, recording (ca. 1984): 7-8.
  3. D. Mihelich (Ed.), Ribbon of Destruction (Omaha, Nebraska: Douglas County Historical Society, n. d.): 3.
  4. Mihelich, Ribbon of Destruction: 8.
  5. Omaha City Directory 1914: 250.
  6. __________, Omaha City Directory Including South Omaha 1913 (Omaha, Nebraska: Omaha Directory Co., 1913): 133.
  7. Omaha City Directory 1913: 133-134.
  8. Omaha City Directory 1913: 333.
  9. Omaha City Directory 1913: 333.
  10. Omaha City Directory 1913: 954.
  11. “Map Showing Devastated District, with Principal Points Marked,” The Omaha Daily Bee, March 26, 1913, morning edition, https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn99021999/1913-03-26/ed-1/seq-2/.
  12. J. C. Dahlman, “Mayor’s proclamation,” Morning World-Herald, March 24, 1913.
  13. __________, “Tornado kills 60, injures 152, in Omaha,” Morning World-Herald, March 24, 1913.
  14. Mihelich, Ribbon of Destruction: 46.
  15. Mihelich, Ribbon of Destruction: 42.
  16. S. Jones, “Back in the day, March 23, 1913: Monster tornado rips a scar across Omaha on Easter,” Omaha World-Herald, Mar. 23, 2021, https://omaha.com/news/local/history/back-in-the-day-march-23-1913-monster-tornado-rips-a-scar-across-omaha-on/article_53e17c40-74b1-11eb-a848-4b45501f7435.html.
  17. Mihelich, Ribbon of Destruction: 46.
  18. Mihelich, Ribbon of Destruction: 46.
  19. Mihelich, Ribbon of Destruction: 47.
  20. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 8.
  21. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 9-10.
  22. Nebraska Memories, “Omaha High School of Commerce,” http://memories.nebraska.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/ops/id/2/rec/13.
  23. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 9.

Day Twenty-Four: Floresville to Sinton, Texas

MRWLeave a comment

November 5, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Wed. Nov. 5.

Left Floresville and drove through Poth, Falls City, Karnes City, Peltus, Normanna, Beeville, Skidmore, Papalote, and Sinton.  We had to go back to Skidmore as we could not get across the river at Sinton.  Stayed all night in Skidmore. – Lena Bevers

On November 5, 1919 Herbert Bevers and Mr. McElhany drove the most miles on that day than on any other day of the 27-day trip.  They drove about 112 miles, driving through four counties: Wilson, Karnes, Bee and San Patricio.  They also drove through four county seats: Floresville, Karnes City, Beeville and Sinton.  Between these county seats were very small communities, some of which are no longer in existence.  According to an article written in 1922 in The Parsons Daily Sun, the towns that Lena listed in her travel log were on a branch of the King of Trails Highway.1

My mother and I started our tour at 11:00 AM in Floresville, Texas.  We had ten stops on our itinerary for the day.  All of the towns were along U. S. Highway 181.  Of the ten places, we were able to find something to photograph in seven of them.  Pettus, Skidmore and Papalote did not have anything historical.

Wilson County Courthouse, Floresville, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
This tree beside the historic jail in Floresville looks like it could have been standing there when Herbert Bevers drove through the town with his family. Note that the left trunk/branch is supported by a white concrete post near the shed. (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
The red corner building is dated 1915, Poth, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
Falls City National Bank has added wings to the original bank building. (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
Karnes County Courthouse was completed in 1895, Karnes City, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
This building is dated 1909, Karnes City, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
We could not find any historic buildings in Normanna, but the above are the government buildings of the town: the post office on the left, the fire station in the middle with fire trucks on the right. (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)

Medio Creek Bridge, a through truss bridge, is about one mile west of Normanna.  It is on the National Register of Historic Places.  “The bridge arrived in kit form and was assembled by the Austin Brothers Bridge Company.”2 It was “built in 1897 by the New Jersey Iron and Steel Company, this bridge has served as one of the major crossings on the road from Beeville to San Antonio. … The bridge remained in service for vehicular traffic until 1987.’”3

Medio Creek Bridge is probably a bridge the Bevers family used, near Normanna, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
The roadside park where we had our picnic lunch, along U. S. Highway 181 north of Beeville. (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)

When the Bevers family arrived in Beeville, the streets were not paved.  They were paved in 1921.4  “Beeville’s 1912 Courthouse has most of the accessories you look for in a courthouse – A clock, dome, statue of the Goddess of Justice and large Corinthian columns.”5

Bee County Courthouse, Beeville, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
The center building is dated 1892, Beeville, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
On the corner of courthouse square, Beeville, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
A 1912 postcard: Looking East, Sinton Street, Sinton, Texas (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project6)
The 1928 San Patricio County Courthouse, Sinton, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)
This corner building is dated 1909, Sinton, Texas (Photograph by MRW November 5, 2019)

When the two automobiles arrived in Sinton, Lena wrote in her travel log that they could not get across the river, and her daughter Florence wrote that “it was in the Gulf storm territory so every thing was torn up.”7  On September 14, 1919 there had been a devastating hurricane.

“San Patricio County as a whole sustained considerable damage during the 1919 storm.  Practically all windmills in the county were either blown to the ground or dismantled.  Power and communication lines were severely damaged.  Many buildings were either damaged or destroyed.  The county received 14 inches of rain in 12 hours and flooding was extensive.  The greatest damage sustained in the county was that of the complete destruction of all of the cotton crop that had not yet been picked.”8

Possibly Herbert and Mr. McElhany were planning to travel alongside the railways which ran along the Gulf Coast through Kingsville and south to Brownsville and the Mexican border.  This route would have taken them through the town of Odem.  The hurricane of 1919 washed out the S. A. U. and G. railroad west of Odem.9  Due to the inability to continue south from Sinton, the travelers returned to Skidmore and Florence wrote that they stayed all night in their cars.10

When my mother and I were looking online for a motel in Skidmore, we weren’t able to find one.  Therefore, we decided to make our reservation in Sinton instead.  We arrived in Sinton about 2:45 PM and went to a public library to look for information about the hurricane of 1919.  Then we made it to the motel about 4:00 PM.

Notes:

  1. “Parsons National Headquarters, King of Trails Highway Ass’n,” The Parsons Daily Sun, February 18, 1922: 4, http://bikeallencounty.org/news/king-trails-highway/.
  2. Texas Escapes, Medio Creek Bridge, http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasBridges/Bee-County-Normanna-Texas-Medio-Creek-Bridge.htm.
  3. Texas Historic Landmark, Medio Creek Bridge (1987), http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasBridges/Bee-County-Normanna-Texas-Medio-Creek-Bridge.htm.
  4. Grace Bauer, “Beeville, Texas”, Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/heb04.
  5. Texas Escapes, Bee County Courthouse, http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/BeevilleTx/Bee-County-Courthouse-Beeville-Texas.htm.
  6. Looking east, Sinton Street, Sinton, Texas (1912), http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/Sinton/SintonStScene1912.jpg.
  7. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 5.
  8. Keith Guthrie, The History of San Patricio County (Austin, Texas: Nortex Press, 1986): 276.
  9. David Roth, Texas Hurricane History, https://www.weather.gov/media/lch/events/txhurricanehistory.pdf.
  10. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas, 5.