A 1935 flood tragedy

Note: In reviewing the stories about the 1935 Republican River Flood in Southwest Nebraska one finds stories of heroism, of ingenuity, of luck, both good and bad, and tragedy-- the loss of property and of human life. Nowhere are all of these elements demonstrated more graphically than in the story of the Chas. Miller Jr. family.

Recently, Nadine Fiddler of Spearfish South Dakota was in McCook to attend the funeral of her cousin, Marilyn Miller, our neighbor in McCook for over 50 years. Nadine (Deenie), the little girl in the following story, is the last surviving member of the Charles Miller Jr. family, which was so devastated in the ’35 Flood.

On Friday morning, May 31st, 1935, the rains began in earnest in McCook, and there were increasing reports of flooding in the west. Charles Miller, Jr. was recuperating from surgery at the McCook home of his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Charles Miller, Sr., but his family, consisting of his wife, Frances (called Dutch by the family) and their six children, Charles Francis (Johnny), 9; Charlotte, 6; Nadine, 5; Virginia May, 4; Claudine, 2; and Beverly, an infant, were at their dairy farm home, south of Perry, six miles west of McCook, along with Mrs. Miller’s sister, Elizabeth Shook, who was visiting her sister and family.

Chas. Miller Sr. called Frances at the farm. They discussed the worsening weather situation. He felt that it would be prudent for the family to leave the farm and join them in town. Frances felt otherwise. Their farm home was on a slight rise just north of the Republican River. Floodwaters had never gotten that high, and besides, the children were just getting over the measles and needed to rest.

Later that morning, Chas. Jr.’s brother, Dale, (who lived with his wife and five children near Chas. Sr.’s home in Northeast McCook) attempted to drive to the farm. Along the way, he picked up a friend, Clyde McKillip. Just south of Perry they were stopped by the rising floodwaters. Though in 1935 boats of any kind were rare in SW Nebr., from somewhere they secured a rowboat, and despite breaking oarlock and a losing an oar, they managed to make their way to the Miller home by this means. By the time they arrived the waters had already reached the windows of the house. Besides Mrs. Miller, her sister, and the six children, the group at the Miller home had swelled to include Fred Swanson and Nels Nielsen, who had come to check on Mr. Swanson’s cattle. Dale Miller and Clyde McKillip went into the house, but the rapidly rising water caught Swanson and Nielsen. Nielsen was able to swim to the roof of the cattle barn, but Mr. Swanson was swept away by the water and drowned.

As the water rose in the house, the group went into the attic. With grim determination and almost superhuman effort, Dale and Clyde managed to break through the ceiling and everyone climbed to the relative safety of the roof. Soon though, the barn, with Niels Nielsen on top, broke loose and crashed into the house, which caused the house to begin floating downstream. Almost immediately the house began to break up and the little group found themselves on a small floating portion of the roof. The men decided that the group should try to make into the trees. When the inevitable break-up of the roof would come, each man would take a child under each arm; Mrs. Miller would take the baby, and Johnny and Elizabeth Shook would take care of each other.

As they floated close to the bank, Dale was able to “throw” Johnny toward one large tree, and it was thought that the boy had managed to hang on to that place of refuge. Then the roof began to break up. Mrs. Miller, with the baby, slipped off into the water. Dale was able to grab her belt, which broke in his grasp. He then managed to reach the baby’s arm, which slipped out of his grasp. Suddenly they were all in the water. The two men eventually made their way into the trees, Dale with Nadine; Clyde with Charlotte. Elizabeth with Claudine and Virginia; Frances, with the baby, Beverly were swept downstream in the swirling floodwaters.

For almost 24 hours the two men clung to their precarious perches in the trees, as the two little girls alternately slept in their arms, then cried for “Mama” when they awoke. During this time they endured pelting rain and high winds, the fringe of a tornado that struck the ground just north of McCook. Sometime during the night the tree in which Dale and Nadine clung went down and the two were swept downstream for a short distance, till they were able to catch the relative safety of another tree.

By about 1 p.m. the next afternoon, June 1st, the water had receded enough that Dale and Nadine thought they might cross the river. With Nadine holding tightly, Dale made it to a sandbar in the middle of the river. They had floated some three miles downstream from the farmstead. Though almost spent, Dale felt that he had to go on for help. Fearing that Nadine would try to follow, he admonished her to “Stay on the sandbar, or I’ll spank you!” With that he plunged into the river again and made it to shore. He stumbled and crawled to the home of Mrs. Lofenberg. He had lost most of his clothing. He was bloated from sunburn, and completely caked with mud. Mrs. Lofenberg was reluctant to open her door, as he more nearly resembled some wild animal than a man. Dale’s throat was so swollen so that he could not talk to explain. Gradually, Mrs. Lofenberg was able to get sips of hot water down his throat, till he could convey that Nadine was alone on the sandbar and he thought that the others were in the trees.

Mrs. Lofenberg quickly ran to the farm of a friend, Jim Adams, who saddled a horse and rode through the floodwater to the sandbar where Nadine dutifully waited. Marilyn Miller (McCook) remembered hearing her cousin, Nadine, tell of the incident soon afterwards, “I was just going to go with the man on horseback, even if I did get a spanking from Uncle Dale!”

About this same time, two friends of Clyde McKillip, Clinton Madron and Craig Welch, spotted McKillip and Charlotte in the tree. The men had a small canvas canoe, and were able to rescue the two and bring them to safety. After that they returned to the Miller farm for Niels Nielsen, who still clung to the roof of the barn, which was miraculously still intact, and lodged in the trees. With him was “Grandma” Dinges, a neighbor, whom Niels had snatched from the floodwaters during the night. Using mind games and song, the two had kept each other awake and offered each other encouragement to hang on, through the long night.

The bodies of the two sisters, Frances and Elizabeth, were later found within a few feet of one another, buried in the sand, near Bartley, over 25 miles downstream from the Miller farm. The bodies of Claudine and Virginia were recovered later and the four are buried in the family plot in the McCook cemetery. The baby, Beverly, and Johnny were never found. Dale was positive that Johnny had made it into the tree OK. Whether the tree went down, or Johnny lad lost his grip sometime during the night, and was swept away, only God knows.

Dale gradually (somewhat) regained his health--physically. Yet, for weeks afterwards he was drawn to the river, each day returning to the area where he had last seen Johnny. He partially lost his grasp on reality. He felt sure that if he could just find “Johnny’s Tree” he would somehow be able to tell what had happened to his nephew.

Finally, fearing for his sanity, the family urged Dale to accept a position in Colorado, working in a dairy. Subsequently he and his family owned and operated a dairy in Greeley, Colorado, for a number of years. In new surroundings he did improve and was able to lead a productive life. But he began to suffer health problems, brought about by a greatly enlarged heart, which was attributed to the stress and physical excesses of the escape from the flood in 1935. At age 52 he suffered a fatal attack of that badly broken heart. Southwest Nebraska’s greatest tragedy had claimed yet another victim.

Source: McCook Gazette Archives