Family Histroy

Johnstown Pennsylvania, nicknamed "The Flood City", is the small steel mill town my mother was born and raised. Johnstown earned its inauspicious name for suffering from three major floods; one in 1889, one in 1936 and finally again in 1977. My mothers family lived through all three floods with my mother herself witnessing the 1977 flood. Passed down through the family was a single dinning room chair that, against all odds, survived all three floods. This is the story of that chair.

The 1889 flood was by far the worst of the three major floods. Extremely heavy rainfall helped a poorly maintained South Fork Dam; recently renovated to allow two way horse-and-buggy traffic by a local fishing and hunting club (Andrew Carnegie was a member), to not so much fail but more spring out of the way of water. The 20 million tons of water that came cascading down the mountain side to fill the valley in which Johnstown wiped out everything in its way. The first thing the water swept along was a barb wire factory. 60 miles of razor wire and barb wire were mixed with the churning water almost from the beginning.

The flood waters went on to destroy the entire town of Johnstown and kill 2,209 people. After the water finally receded the resulting 30 acre, 70 foot tall debris pile was such a tangle of wire and rail road rails that dynamite was necessary to remove it. The devastation was so significant that a brand new disaster relief organization came in to help -- Clara Barton and the then unknown Red Cross.

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--------------A massive plug of debris gets lodged in a stone bridge backing up the water temporarily. The plug then catches on fire
-----------------------------------------and kills 80 people attempting to cross the bridge to safety. Bummer.


The Frischoff family home was located up the valley wall slightly and was thus marginally protected from the worst of the flood. The family home was mostly destroyed but not blown to splinters like most of Johnstown. The old dinning room table and chairs, already an antique to the family, was in the first floor living room. A week after the flood the family returned to assess the damage and found the house hardly standing with everything in the bottom floors destroyed or washed away. Except the chair. Other things survived, but the chair was nearly pristine, as if the flood waters hadnt even touched the chair.

Nearly 5 decades later, the town was flooded again. This time on St. Patrick's day in the heart of the depression. Waters rose to 14 feet in some areas, killing two dozen people and wiping out nearly 100 buildings and causing an estimated 41 million dollars in damages. The depression riddled town was ill equipped to help itself and massive federal support was sent to dig out the town which was once again a tangle of rail ways and barb wire (the barb wire factory had been rebuilt and brilliantly positioned to be the first thing swept along by flood waters).

This time the Frischoff family home was placed better to avoid the waters and the house survived. However, the 14 foot flood waters was enough to sweep out the lower level. The family, upon returning to the house days later, found the 1889 chair no where in the house. After a quick search the chair was found, sitting perfectly under a chair, 100 yards away in the back field. Again, the chair was pristine, untouched, completely unmarked by water despite having now survived two massive floods.

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--------------The three set of brackets on the corner of Johnstown's City Hall indicate the water levels of the three major floods.


40 years later the town was flooded again. This time a flood that submerged the town in 11 feet of water killed 85 and caused over 300 million dollars in property damage. President Jimmy Carter declared the hardest hit county's disaster zones and sent in National Guard to help clear the debris and help the hundreds of families who were now homeless. Major buildings in historic downtown Johnstown still bare the water marks from the 1977 flood, some 10 feet above sidewalk level.

The chair had since been passed from the Friscoff family to the Margrims, now owned by my mother's mother. The family's home was far up the valley walls with only the basement of the house flooding. After pumping the water out my grandfather went through the basement, used simply for storage, and threw out the things ruined by the flood. Once again, the chair was found in perfect condition, despite having floated from the back room of the basement (think of it like a glorified crawl space) to the base of the steps. Once again flaunting its seemingly magical ability to not be harmed by Johnstown flood waters. The chair was passed from my grandmother to my mother whom took it first to Pittsburge, then New Orleans then Chicago where I grew up. The chair's rich history and unique story made it a center peice in my mother's living room which was the one room we only ever used for guests.


I broke the chair when I was 8 years old by leaning back on it too far when playing an intense game of Tie Fighter on my computer. Your move mother nature.

Your move.

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