Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Mary Hill remembers the 1935 flood

The year 1935 is well remembered by older people of the area. It was a year of drought, dust storms and the Republican River Flood.

Mary remembered the famous flood: " Them came the flood. Howard had pneumonia and we called Dr. Smith of Franklin. He didn't drive, so we had to go get him. When he got to the Franklin river bridge the water was so high, they wouldn't let anyone cross it. While he was standing there, four head of mules came down the river, all fastened to the manger from the barn. When they struck the bridge with their heads, it must have snapped their necks. He never saw them come up on the other side. Ted developed a terrible headache and stomachache, so he come on home. He either called, or had seen Harry Kennedy at the Bridge, because Harry met us and took us to Smith Center hospital, after the water went down."

"Some one made a pontoon bridge over the river out of barrels. It wasn't bad going across, but one day we crossed it with the cultivator tied on behind the car. I was scared to death, but we made it."

"Lots of people lost their lives in that flood. Bob Miller was down in the river bottom east and south of Franklin, but he climbed a tree and saved himself. Mankheys' lost everything they had."

Mary also remembered the grass hopper years: " Ted planted 8 to 10 acres of oats for hay and kept watching for grasshoppers, and one day they moved in. They were so thick on the fence posts, on the side away from the sun; you couldn't see any of the fence posts. There were millions eating the oats, so Dad mowed `til he got it all cut, but still they kept eating, He raked it, and we hauled it in and stacked what was left."

"We really had bad luck all the time we lived north of Lookout Mountain. Ted had a horse get pinkeye and the horse went crazy, so he has to be killed. One time, cows got into a field of Sudan grass Ted planted for feed, and seven of them died."

The growing Hill family lived part of 1938 on what Howard Hill calls the Bonham place.

Chapter 23

A farm by Naponee

Some time in 1938, Ted moved his family to a farm north of Naponee that Ike Helman owned. They lived there until 1942.

This farm was located in the SW *, Section 18, Farmers Township and was about one mile south of where Dave Kelly lives.

On September 27, 2000, Howard and Bonnie Hill and I took a ride to this farm. The new home of Ted and Mary was a little square house just east of the Turkey Creek Bridge. The house sat on the west side of the draw, back north of the road in some trees. Howard said if we had time he was sure we could find the remains of the torn down house in the trees. He pointed to a place on the rise, northwest of the house, saying his dad told him of charcoal in the dirt, where he thought once had been an Indian encampment. He said his dad saw it every time the ground was worked in the 1940's.

To the northwest, and down the hill, sat a barn; a building that used to be Sherwood Mill (story for another day). The reason we know that this barn was the old Sherwood Mill is the fact the up right beams are about 12 inches thick. Farther west is Turkey Creek, where the mill used to sit. I would like to know where the original mill site was; I have a precious picture of this mill in its glory day.

Mary wrote while they lived there, the children went to the Sindt School. " While living on the Helman place, it rained 7 * inches and Turkey Creek Flooded. The water almost surrounded the house, but it got into the barn, hog house, and chicken house. We lost little lambs and pigs and everything in the cellar. The kids packed their bags and went to the neighbors. Turkey Creek was dangerous; there was lots of quick sand in it. Our old brown Jersey cow went down in a swamp in the north end of the pasture. She was the cow the kids like to ride."

"Grandma Sarah Anderson from Missouri came to visit us when we lived on Helman's. Lawrence Gosnell let the kids ride his little white pony one summer. Gosnells lived west of the late Wayne Kelly, up the hill on the south side of the road. Lawrence was a friend of the family. When we lived on the Helman place, Dad (Ted) took us to the Naponee Depot and we rode the train to Franklin. It was my only train ride."

"Once on Ike's place, Turkey Creek came up while we were in town, or someplace, and the water was over the bridge. While we were crossing the bridge, the Model A. stopped and Ted got out. The wires had gotten wet, so he took a diaper of Ken's and dried the wires and it started. We went on across it, but it was a scary time. That creek could be wicked at times."

All our children, Gerry, Dot, Howard, and Kenneth were baptized in the little eight-sided church in Naponee.

Whatever kind of words thou speakest, the like shalt thou hear. Book IX 382, A Homeric Cento.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day

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