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Orville W. West
b.Abt 1852 Newark, Wirt, West Virginia, USA
d.Abt 1920 Newark, Wirt, West Virginia, USA
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. Aft 1888
Facts and Events
Questionable information identified by WeRelate automation
[from "A Pioneer History of Wirt County" by Tommie Sewell, in the Wirt County Journel, Vol 78 No 52, c 1978] First wife lost in 7/18/1889 flood at Tucker Creek (from "Extra" Edition of The Elizabeth Times on 7/24/1889): Mr. Somerville, on his way home, horseback, stopped in the old covered bridge over Tucker Creek for shelter from the downpour of rain. He remained there until the rising creek warned him that the bridge might be washed from its foundation and whipped in two and to the opposite side of the Little Kanawha River. "Before Roda and I left the house, we heard Jim Kiger pass, and he was praying as I never heard a man praying before, of his three children who were drowned. Two of them seemed to be still with him in what was left of their house as I could hear the cries of two children. The next day the baby was found above our house and Fanny Hayes and I made it a dress to be buried in. There were no marks on its little body. "One never forgets such memories as Thursday night, July 18, 1889," Mrs. Somerville concluded. Orville West and his wife went on down the creek until they reached the upper end of the C. W. Rogers farm. There she was struck by a passing drift and torn from her husband's arms. That was the last he saw of her. Her body was recovered about a mile below on the Charles Richardson farm on Monday morning, and was buried on the same day at the Rose Hill Cemetary. Mr. West has caught onto a willow tree and was rescued about two or three hours later. He was hardly bruised and was almost unconscious when found. Mr. West and his brother-in-law made a bold and herioc effort to save his wife, but fate was against them. [Orvil West later married Emma J. Showalter, daughter of Henry Showalter, of Limestone Ridge. Mr. West was born in 1852 and died in 1920. His last wife was born in 1865 and died in 1911. Both are buried in the cemetary at the Dunkard Church.] [Tucker Creek was the highest it was ever known, and Morristown was almost totally destroyed by the flood.] [Family tradition has it that one of the two possessions left to Orville after the flood was a silver dollar, kept in the family for several years with a hole and string through it, but later lost.] [from the Charleston Sundy Gazette-Mail, July 16, 1989]: Cloudburst Dumped 19 Inches in 2 Hours [ROCKPORT] - A weathered, century-old granite monument marking the graves of Cornelia Ann Hughes and her four children stands as a lonely reminder of one of the heaviest rainfalls on record. "The mother and children were drowned in the flood of July 18, 1889," reads the simple epitaph carved into the stone that sits amid tall grass and weeds 200 yards from where the family was swept away by the ravaging Sandy Creek. On that day, thunderstorms, probably fed by moisture-laden tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico, dumped 19.5 incheds of rain on this Wood County town in two hours and 10 minutes. The resulting flash floods roared through several villages located along creeks in the area, killing at least 19people. Some account put the death toll at 21. "You'll find Rockport listed among some of the heavier rainfalls ever recorded in the world," said Ken Batty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, who has done extensive research on the cloudburst. "It's unique and mind boggling. I've never been in a rain that hard. I don't think anyone wants to be in a rain that hard." Records show that the 18th, a Thursday, was humid and mild, with a temperature in the upper 70s. The darkening skies let loose about 8 p.m. By the time the rain had let up, settlements and villges along five creeks had been virtually washed away by the swirling waters. Barges were sunk, livestock and crops were lost, and logs from timber mills located along the banks became missles that smashed through anything in their path. R.D.J. Echols, a weather service observer who lived in Rockport at the time, described the deluge as "a terrific thunderstorm accompanied by vivid lightening." Other reports said that the Tygart Creek rose 32 feet in one hour, taking much of the village of Rockport with it. Flooding also occurred east of Rockport along the Little Kanawha River and in Hocking County and Chillicothe, Ohio. But nearly all of the fatalities were concentrated along the creeks that drain Limestone Hill, located near where Jackson, Wood, and Wirt Counties meet. Lenora Low, a Rockport resident whose family survived the flooding of Pond Creek in southern Wood County, compiled a history of the flash flood to mark its 100th anniversary. "It's just kind of been forgotten," said Low, who spent about four years researching and writing her booklet titled "The Disastrous Flood." "I think people ought to be aware of what happened here. It's part od the history of this area." she said. Low's collection contains a letter written by Tom Hughes, describing the last time he saw his wife and children after timbers from a new church. which was to be dedicated on the upcoming Sunday, slammed into his cabin, breaking it apart. "In an instant, we all went under the dreadful water." Hughes wrote in a letter to his brother dated August 1, 1889. "All in a group, my family was drowned in a moment... Then I came up by a tree and climbed it. I was in the tree two hours and a half. I have been very poorly since all my family was found." "I never knew what trouble was before this. The only comfort I have, I know they are all in heaven." T.F. Grant interviewed by the Parkersburg News in 1985 when he was 93, said that the clouds that day were heavy and black, and the electrical dsplay was something feirce. "The rains came down so hard that it bent umbrella down over our heads like a sack," said Grant, who lives along Tucker Creek, near the former village of Morristown, one of the hardest hit areas. "I have almost quit talking about the flood because folks just hardly believe me." Batty said flash floods are common throughout ASppalachia especially when rainfalls exceed 2 inches per hour. The deluge that caused Rockport flood fell at a rate of nearly 10 inches per hour. "What makes this one intriguing, and could easily give civil engineers and meteorologists and people who live along the creeks here headaches was the rate of the rain", Batty said. The rate of the Rockport storm exceeds that records in Smethport, Pa. on July 18, 1942, when 30 inches of rain fell in four hours, and nearly matches that recorded when a foot of rain fell on Holt, Mo. in 42 minutes on June 22, 1947. Buried at Newark, WV References
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