From On the River
While studying at the Grand Rapids Public Library, I leafed through a lot of interesting information pertaining to the flood of 1904. Even through the haze of my flu-like symptoms, I was able to retain some interesting facts about the flood and this certain time period in Grand Rapids.
The first thing that I read was a "scientific" record reported by Lyman B. Cooley on June 29th, 1904. This was exactly 3 months after the floods notorious take over of the city. This record was fairly monotonous, and uninteresting so I will only discuss some of the main topics. Flooding has always been a regular happening in Grand Rapids, and typically the water would rise at the beginning of spring (typically in March) due to the fact that the winter snow was melting and increasing the volume of the water in the river. The city engineers had even put in a gauge to keep track of how the water rises and falls in the river. During the flood of 1904, the gauge measured 19.5 feet above the regular level of water. The author believed that the flood was caused by a significantly snowy and harsh winter in 1903-04.
After reading slowly through the report, I began to get tired of the numerous tidbits of information, and decided to look at some other articles.
The article that really caught my eye was entitled MISSING!. It was a newspaper article from the time of the flood. Two people were lost in the flood, and had not been found. Their names were Lulu Peck and Frank Fales. I was very surprised that the article did not mention Frank Fales other than just having his name in bold underneath the title of the article. The girth of the article discussed the disappearance of one Lulu Peck. The article referred to her as “Miss Lulu Peck” and this in itself made for interest. Miss Lulu was employed on Cherry Street and roomed with her uncle, Mr. O.W. Fox 452 Broadway. She was last seen with Vern Drake, a local man. They were trying to walk down West Leonard and then came across a rig, which was being used as a ferry during the high flood waters. Drake asked the ferry driver to take Miss Lulu to her home, and the man promised that he would. Miss Peck got into the carriage and Vern Drake watched as the carriage did not turn on Broadway as he had asked, but it continued west. That was the last sighting of Miss Lulu Peck of Broadway Street. This story has hit a nerve with me, and I want to find out more information. I have always been curious about history, particularly history pertaining to people who have become lost and forgotten over the years. I think Miss Lulu has a very soft, whispering voice, and just needs someone to hear her.
The final items that I found were amusing and inappropriate. I found some souvenirs of the flood of 1904. The flood itself was a time of chaos and nervousness. It was also a way for the people to be amused, and a make an extra buck. The people of Grand Rapids turned the flood into their own Coney Island side show, something to be gawked at, and bought in small pieces. There was even a catch phrase for the flood “Those three days were really exciting!” This phrase was not only repeated in numerous articles reflecting upon the flood, but was even made into large signs. There were also photographs taken of the flood being sold as “Flood Souvenirs.” Note the pictures below:
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