THE BIG FLOOD OF CRANE CREEK
By Mary Anderson-Boyd
| The big flood hit in the 1930's sometime. I can't recall the exact year. It practically washed the city of Hurley away. My Dad, Jim Adam Anderson and I, Mary Anderson-Boyd, were in town at Hurley, Missouri when it started raining. We were there to buy feed. We headed home and could not get home because the Bluff Road was flooded. He took me over to a neighbor's house, that sat on top of a hill, where I spent the night. The neighbor's house belonged to the Gold family. My father continued homeward bound on foot, by walking along the top of the hill. The next morning, my Dad, Jim Anderson, found the barber shop chair that had been washed down Crane Creek, from Hurley, which was 5 miles away. The flood took a lot of Dad's crops too, since our home, the Anderson farm, was located on the horseshoe bend of Crane Creek, down the bluff road, right out of Hurley. |
Jim Anderson in background standing on the thrashing machine. The car is a 1934 Chevy. a man by the name of Willie Shoemaker, drove a team of horses with wagon, to cross the creek. The creek was so swift that it washed the team and wagon down the creek about a half mile. The horses drowned and they were found still hitched to the wagon, tangled up in the harnesses. It was a sad situation but Willie got out OK. He must have had a guardian angel watching out over him. |
© Mary Anderson-Boyd 2003