Disasters
Lowell has seen many disasters over its history, including large fires, tornadoes, bliz
zards, 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.
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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 authori
ties. 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.
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A tornado struck the Lowell area on June 18, 1928. Mrs. Andrew Tullius, who was liv
ing in a large house that stood on a point in the hills across the Muskingum River from
Lowell, detailed the event:
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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At Nick Bauerbach's, the wind took half the roof off the house and drew the clothes out
of the upstairs windows.
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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.
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The next stop on the tornado's itinerary was at the Levi Bartlett farm in what is now
Oak Grove.
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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.
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I guess it lifted again and the next place it hit was New Matamoras.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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 bath
house roof was found in the nearby pool.
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Two eyewitnesses, Lowell Elementary physical education instructor Larry Handschum
acher 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.
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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.
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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.
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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 se
vere flooding. High winds from the severe thunderstorms caused a lot of damage and
power outages that lasted for days for many.
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On June 29, 2012, the area was hit by a derecho. The June 2012 Mid-Atlantic and Mid
west derecho was one of the deadliest and most destructive fast-moving severe thun
derstorm complexes in North American history. The storm caused excessive damage
to the Lowell area and caused power outages that lasted for days and weeks.
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On July 2, 1897, a thunderstorm broke in all its fury in Lowell. Great damage was done
to crops and many washouts were reported.
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Cats Creek became a raging torrent and swept away the upper bridge across the ca
nal. The pier under the draw span was literally torn from its foundation by the force of
the flood.
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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.
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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.
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The flood of 1913 caused a great loss and damage at Lowell.
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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.
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In buildings that remained standing, there was great destruction of household goods
and merchandise by the water.
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On July 18, 1938, the Muskingum Conservancy System of 14 dams for water control
and flood elimination was dedicated at Bolivar.
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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:
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"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 sever
al 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."
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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."
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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 for
get 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."
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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.
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No gas, no oil, no coal, and very little to eat, no medicine for the sick there was abso
lutely 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."
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Caldwell responded with warm clothing and bedding and the farmers in the surround
ing 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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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In 1937, Lois Cowell was teaching Latin and Home Economics at Lowell High School.
She also coached the girls’ basketball team.
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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.
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But by noon it became obvious that they should have canceled school because the sat
urated 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.
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Dean Baesel, a freshman in Lois’ Latin class, informed his parents of the problem. Ed
ward 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 post
al 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.
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By January 25, the floodwater had crested and even gone down a little. Lois was anx
ious 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.
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Cecil Schwendeman, a former student of Lois, owned a rowboat and agreed to trans
port her across the still swollen Muskingum River. Lois had to suppress her fear of fall
ing 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.
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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.”