Disasters
Lowell has seen many disasters over its history, including large fires, tornadoes, blizzards, damaging hail storms, droughts, and floods. Flooding is by far the most common disaster for Lowell. There have been numerous floods throughout the village’s history.
Lowell has also seen health disasters from epidemics and pandemics. A number of
19th and early 20th Century "Fevers" caused widespread sickness and numerous
deaths. The area was also hit with the 1918 Influenza pandemic, commonly known as the Spanish Flu, and more recently, COVID-19.
On February 1, 1938, The Board of Education ordered schools to close for one week
as a precautionary measure after Maxine Pitt, a high school student, became ill with Scarlet Fever. Several local cases of this disease had already been reported to authorities. Schools would be ordered to close again during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
On May 6, 1879, a large fire broke out burning a planing mill, a church, and several
adjoining buildings. The loss was estimated at $10,000.
A tornado struck the Lowell area on June 18, 1928. Mrs. Andrew Tullius, who was living in a large house that stood on a point in the hills across the Muskingum River from Lowell, detailed the event:
"We had finished our supper - it was around six in the evening - and my husband and I had started to the field to finish a little work there, when we saw the storm coming.
He'd been out in Oklahoma a year or so before we were married and knew what we were likely in for, but he didn't tell me. He just said we'd better get back to the house. As we hurried up to the house, a big apple tree went sailing over our heads.
We got as far as the yard gate and when he went to open it, the wind took him and the gate and carried them about 100 feet and over an open well, before dropping them.
I had my arms around the gate post and held on for dear life. I saw the wind take three of our four outbuildings and I thought 'Oh, my God.' I wondered if the children were all in the house."
The children were safe, but all 10 of the upstairs windows were blown out, the front half of the house roof was gone, and much of the barn roof.
"From our house, the tornado went on to Marion Burke's place. It took their big barn and shoved across a five-acre field - just like as if you'd taken your hand and pushed it - and destroyed most of the crops in the field.
Next, the tornado wrecked the house on the Bosner home place and took the barn
roof. The first storm had taken the end off the barn.
At Nick Bauerbach's, the wind took half the roof off the house and drew the clothes out of the upstairs windows.
One of their quilts was found on John Huck's farm which would be about four air-miles away. One of the men mowed into it weeks later.
The next stop on the tornado's itinerary was at the Levi Bartlett farm in what is now Oak Grove.
Here, it took their roof off and damaged their outbuildings and then it crossed the river and hit the Children's Home, doing some damage there.
I guess it lifted again and the next place it hit was New Matamoras.
On our farm, the tornado mowed down our orchard of about 50 fruit trees. Some of
them were uprooted and some of them were just like you had taken a chisel and cut them off.
Every fence on our farm was gone and we couldn't turn our cattle out, had to keep
them in the barn until the fences could be rebuilt.
After the wind, the rain began. It rained for about four days. You never saw such a
mess as we had in the attic trying to mop up the water to keep it from ruining every
thing in the rest of the house."
On February 2, 1973, at approximately 12:30 pm a tornado touched down in Lowell. The short-lived tornado ripped the roof from the Lowell pool bathhouse. Parts of the roof were found in the canal, across State Route 60, and in the Lowell Elementary Schoolyard. The school was not touched by the tornado. The main section of the bathhouse roof was found in the nearby pool.
Two eyewitnesses, Lowell Elementary physical education instructor Larry Handschumacher and custodian Charles Stengel, watched the oncoming storm from a doorway at the school gymnasium. Handschumacher said that the "sky got really black" when the storm approached. Suddenly the tornado struck and within seconds the tornado had recoiled into the sky. Stengel reported seeing trees in the area bend nearly to the ground by the force of the high winds. He recalled very heavy rain and then hearing a rumble, which was the roof being torn from the building.
The heavy winds also caused the power to go out at approximately six homes in the Fifth Street area of Lowell after the tornado hit. A tree fell on some power lines causing the power outage.
The bathhouse was completed and opened with the entire pool facility on July 6, 1967. The cost of building the bathhouse at the time was about $18,000.
From June 26 to June 30, 1998, the area was hit with excessive rainfall and severe
thunderstorms. Rainfall accumulations were in excess of 10 inches, which caused severe flooding. High winds from the severe thunderstorms caused a lot of damage and power outages that lasted for days for many.
On June 29, 2012, the area was hit by a derecho. The June 2012 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest derecho was one of the deadliest and most destructive fast-moving severe thunderstorm complexes in North American history. The storm caused excessive damage to the Lowell area and caused power outages that lasted for days and weeks.
On July 2, 1897, a thunderstorm broke in all its fury in Lowell. Great damage was done to crops and many washouts were reported.
Cats Creek became a raging torrent and swept away the upper bridge across the canal. The pier under the draw span was literally torn from its foundation by the force of the flood.
There are no concise records on the exact height of the Muskingum River during the floods at Lowell, but records for McConnelsville and Marietta give some idea of how high the water has been at Lowell during these floods.
The flood stage at McConnelsville is 11 ft. It is 35 ft at Marietta.
• The March 1913 flood was 33.50 ft at McConnelsville and 58.30 ft at Marietta.
• The January 1937 flood was 21.14 ft at McConnelsville and 55.00 ft at Marietta.
• The February 1884 flood was 52.90 ft at Marietta.
• The March 1907 flood was 50.50 ft at Marietta.
• The February 1832 flood was 48.80 ft at Marietta.
• The September 1861 flood was 45.00 ft at Marietta.
• The September 2004 flood was 44.97 ft at Marietta.
• The September 1935 flood was 17.00 ft at McConnelsville.
• The January 1952 flood was 14.52 ft at McConnelsville.
• The January 1959 flood was 14.38 ft at McConnelsville and 41.40 ft at Marietta.
• The March 1964 flood was 13.78 ft at McConnelsville and 45.20 ft at Marietta.
• The January 2005 flood was 13.77 ft at McConnelsville and 43.60 ft at Marietta.
• The March 1945 flood was 13.50 ft at McConnelsville.
The flood of 1913 caused a great loss and damage at Lowell.
The store building of Henniger and Rietz on Front Street burned. The covered bridge across the Muskingum was destroyed, and the canal bridge was washed from its position. Many houses were carried away from Upper Lowell and from the island. The Lowell Planing Mill was carried away from its position below the flour mill. The buildings in the flatiron block were washed away or destroyed.
In buildings that remained standing, there was great destruction of household goods and merchandise by the water.
On July 18, 1938, the Muskingum Conservancy System of 14 dams for water control and flood elimination was dedicated at Bolivar.
A descriptive letter written on April 9, 1913, by Belva Leake to her brother provides the best description of the 1913 flood at Lowell. It begins:
"Dear Hobe:
We are glad we can send a letter from Lowell for what with water and fire there came near not being any town left. On Monday it had been raining and the river rised several feet. By Tuesday people began talking of another '84 flood, and people in the lower parts of the island began to prepare for high water. By Wednesday a.m. the island was flooded and the canal was full and breaking over in front of Bell's. Wednesday by noon the people were moving out of all the stores and by two o'clock one couldn't get out from Rietz's house only by wading. By early Wednesday eve the water had reached the '98 line and the boats were tied to the lamp post in front of Wendell's."
The Wendell house was later the Fred Shuman house. Miss Leake tells of the first
approach of the river and the precautions taken to place their furniture of danger. They worked through the night. "By two a.m. we had most of the stuff up, we thought, and intended staying in the upstairs. A little before 2:30 there was an explosion - our house shook. When we looked out, the whole town seemed afire. Henniger & Rietz, the meat market, Addie Sprague's millinery store, her home above Henry Rietz's, Dr. Mason's drug store, the jewelry store, The Record office, Henry Rietz' home (the tile one on Front St.), and the store where Paul Heckman had his saloon, all burned up."
The Leake home was two blocks away, however "The flames came to us, and we
grabbed the kids out of bed and wrapped them in blankets. I got a suitcase and put in my diamonds, shoes for each of us, a suit apiece, and a coat for each. Dad and mama in the meantime took two of the kids and waded out. Mama had no shoes, I had no dress on. We were none of us dressed warm.... We went to the school house. Others were doing the same where it was still possible to wade. Hobe, no one will ever forget it. During the whole time the people on the island screamed for help with all their strength. The current was so swift and the buildings falling so fast, one risked their life in a boat. But finally George Kinney, Will Turkenton and Penny Henniger rescued them - the Dr. Masons, Rietzs (Nora and Phoebe) and scores of others, all screaming for help." The blinding glare from the holocaust raging out of control intensified the inky blackness beyond it where the wild river was choked with tossing buildings and bridges from upstream. It took stout hearts to answer those hysterical screams for help. But we are told, "All were saved."
The letter describes the rise of the waters and tells how house by house and street by street it claimed the town. By noon the following day those who had taken refuge in the school were forced out or onto the second floor. "By night the boats were tied up in the road by Mattern's home, the new one in Saner's addition, and in the middle of the road where Judd Longley used to live at the foot of the hill above the school house.
No gas, no oil, no coal, and very little to eat, no medicine for the sick there was absolutely nothing but a mob of people. It was awful. Both telephone offices had burned. By Friday a.m. men and women were so tired I think that what was let of Lowell could have burned and no one could have turned a hand. Charley Shinn climbed a pole and in some way got Macksburg. The women of Dexter and Macksburg began making sandwiches, cooking beans, and all kinds of cooked foods, also flour and hundreds of loaves of bread."
Caldwell responded with warm clothing and bedding and the farmers in the surrounding hills also sent help. A relief station was established in "Grandma Henniger's old house", which stood at the corner of Walnut and Fifth Streets. Everything was rationed out from fuel to food, but the nightmare was over.
As the waters receded the destruction was staggering. The buildings in the heart of
Lowell were either burned, swept away, or emptied of contents. Only three homes
remained on the island, only one on Canal Street. All streets ad roads were a jumble of wreckage and both bridges gone. There was no fuel to dry the water-logged houses or furnish warmth for the sick, but "everybody is trying to make the best of things although they are so tired they can’t talk out loud."
The following story, courtesy of Donna Foster via Sally Cowell Modie, provides great detail in how destructive and long-lasting the 1937 flood was to the area.
The story is about Lois Lydia (Breckenridge) Cowell's experiences during the flood.
Lois, and her husband, George Cowell, taught at various schools in Washington County.
During the Great Depression school districts struggled to pay teachers’ salaries be
cause of dwindling tax revenues. By 1935, they had two children: Sally, and George
Jr. In addition to George’s position as principal in the Barlow School District, he began selling insurance to make ends meet. Lois found a teaching position at Lowell while her parents, Daniel and Ethelle Breckenridge, cared for her two children."
In 1937, Lois Cowell was teaching Latin and Home Economics at Lowell High School. She also coached the girls’ basketball team.
Lois arrived at school on Tuesday, January 19th after nearly a week of heavy rains in the area. Those who lived along the Muskingum River were used to some flooding and therefore the decision was made to finish out the school day.
But by noon it became obvious that they should have canceled school because the saturated ground couldn’t hold all the water and the three bridges Lois had to cross to get home were washed out. Lois was stuck in Lowell as the water continued to rise.
Dean Baesel, a freshman in Lois’ Latin class, informed his parents of the problem. Edward and Alice Baesel opened their home to Lois, offering her a room in their home on Fifth Street in Lowell until the floodwaters went down. Edward Baesel was a rural postal carrier and made wooden jewelry boxes for friends and family. Dean’s sister Marian Baesel loaned Lois dry clothes to wear because she was dripping wet from walking from the school to the Baesel’s home.
By January 25, the floodwater had crested and even gone down a little. Lois was anxious to get home. The phone lines were still working so she called home and George made plans to come to get her in their big old 1929 Dodge automobile. It was twenty-five miles from their farm in Watertown to Lowell.
Cecil Schwendeman, a former student of Lois, owned a rowboat and agreed to transport her across the still swollen Muskingum River. Lois had to suppress her fear of falling into the water as she climbed into the small johnboat. Cecil had no way of knowing where George would be waiting on the other side, so he just rowed upstream against the current until he and Lois heard a human whistling. George had a particular whistle that everyone in the family recognized so they could find each other in a crowd. Lois heard her husband’s whistle and was able to help direct the boat toward her family waiting on the other bank.
When George passed away in 1976, Lois said, “One of these days when I get to the
pearly gates, I’m hoping to hear that whistle.”