1889 Flood Survivors Project - Unsigned

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The letter is not signed.

May 1 - - 64

Mr. Snyder--

Hearing that some time ago you put in an appeal for relics that were in the Johnstown Flood of 1889 - - I have two relics I could loan you or maby (sic) let you have for keeps. Now that I am getting old and none of my family will bother about them when I am gone.

I have a small piece of tile 3 inches square. On the back of it there are AET CO LIMITED NO. 4-18 that I think I would like to only loan. My dad gave it to me to play with when I was a baby. And the other relic is a small cubbard 36x26x10 inches. Looks like it had been a little home built cubbard nailed together with square nails.

Only one drawback now maby (sic) you wouldn't want it now after all these years. It was a dark brown looking thing and a lot of wear and rubs. Looked awffel (sic) l so I painted it white and am still using it in my kitchen as a little soap cubbard, I call it.

At time of the Flood my father was a young man of 18 years old. Not married yet and lived up in the mountains. He helped to red up the Johnstown Flood such as pulling dead bodies out of the mud and everything they would see they would pull it out.

He use (sic) to tell us kids a lot of what he saw and helped with. Told of how they would see a hand or a foot or arm or leg sticking out of mud or other piled up things and give them a pull, as he expressed it, and out would come a man or woman or a baby or boy or girl. Sure must have been awffel (sic).

So he pulled out this little cabinet and took it home with the tile also for a keepsake. Then he and my mother meet and married and used it in the home ever since.

If you would happen to want it, someone will have to come and get it. I have no way to get a thing that big to them. I have no way or no one that would take that much interest in it. They think it's a silly idea of me. I have a phone no. - - 736-9173. My address is 812 Vine St. Portage, PA. 

Courtesy of Debra Orner - #Jayceesfloodsurvivors