Featured Real Photo Postcards - Family Tragedy 1923

My paternal Great-Grandmother was drowned & washed away during the Cloud Burst in Louisville, NE in September of 1923. Her body was not found. Years later a body was found & it was thought to be her and was buried in a potters field in Louisville.

When my Grandmother passed away in 1969, a set of 24 postcards and a hand written letter, written while she waited for the train that day, were found. I read the letter once & viewed the postcards (I was 17 at the time). Then my father sent 2 postcards & the letter to his Aunt and when he asked for them back she said she had thrown them away - Gasp! So I am now missing #3 and #24 of the postcards and the letter is forever lost. I have been looking for the two postcards for many, many years.

Bits & pieces of what I remember from the letter: She had been in Louisville, NE to attend her sister's funeral and was waiting for the train to arrive, to take her home to IL. She talked about the horrible storm that was raging, how she was looking forward to seeing her family and her dog. Then someone came to the station & announced that the train track was flooded and she ended by saying she was going to walk across the street to post the letter and then head back to the relative's house to wait out the storm. (after the chaos was over, what remained of the family said she had actually reached the house just before it was washed away. All 12 people in the house were killed - two of them never found.)

Postcard #2 is where the house had been. Postcard #4 - looks like they are carrying a wicker casket.

Article about the storm: https://dnr.nebraska.gov/floodplain/news/louisville-remembers-deadly-1923-flood

 

What a truly sad story. Even more poignant is the loss of the letter and the missing pieces of the puzzle - the two postcards. You have the remaining pieces and your memory. Perhaps transcribing what you remember of it would help to preserve the story.

 

Wild Weather Wednesday: Greatest Calamity in History of Louisville – 1923 Flood Kills Twelve | History Nebraska

Have you talked to these people. They have two of your cards and one that I don't see in your group

 

TY Kiko, I'll contact them & see if they might have my two missing ones. I'd be HAPPY to just get a scanned copy!

 

Your great grandmother's name is listed here (I think)

Flood-1923 (louisvillenebraska.com)

 

Maybe the photos are in the Louisville newspaper available through this site.

Cass County Historical Soc. Information (rootsweb.com)

 

Her complete name was: Lucinda Ann Smith (nee Horton). Nickname: Lou

Thank you for another lead to check-out!

 

Glad to help. This seems very important to you.

 

Yes, pretty important to me. My father's side of the family is very hard to trace with his parents having the surnames of: Brown & Smith

Here is a previous thread I posted with her picture and her watch that I'm the PROUD owner of. https://www.antiquers.com/threads/great-grandmothers-necklace-question.34912/

 

I have a friend who lives in Bennington Ne and belongs to their historical society. Perhaps she will know someone in Louisville

 

If not too much trouble. . .it would be great if your friend could provide ANY leads! My two big desires would be: finding copies/originals of postcards #3 and #24, and if anyone has any knowledge of a potter's field grave-site in Louisville.

 

On another note: does anyone think the casket shown is made out of wicker (of all things)?

Edit: guess I answered my own question. . . https://gloomthzine.com/2019/02/28/the-history-of-wicker-coffins/

 

What a dreadful event.
Good work Kiko!

 

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing your story.

Sorry that is a really horrible event to even think about let alone know the people who were the victims.

Real photo postcards were really popular to document tragedies since radio didn't become prevalent in households until the later years of the 20's and of course television wasn't around yet. Newspapers were the primary means of communications at the time but RPPCs provided more detail for a better understanding of what had happened.

There are lots of postcards of floods, tornados, fires, train wrecks, and even mining disasters.

Potters fields are fairly common in almost every major U.S. city of any age. The city where I live has one that is now a forgotten corner of a city park that has been permitted to return to nature and almost all traces of the cemetery are gone. Many of those buried in potters fields were buried in mass graves during pandemics.

 

Devastating.

I remember that, so nice that you have her necklace and watch. She looked lovely.

 

What a devastating tragedy. Even though it's such a sad part of your family's history, you're fortunate to have these postcards.

A side note: Population in Louisville in 1920 was 645, and 969 in 1930.

 

@Joe2007 Was it common to number the cards and print info on the front?

I also have a very deteriorated newspaper from Duluth, MN, printed the next day with an article about the cloud burst. Strange because wee Louisville is pretty far removed from Duluth.

When my father found these items in 1969, he had no idea how his mother had ever gotten them. He was only 2 years old in 1923.