Bonus Story: Cousin Allard’s Raft

 

The long glass display case in the Museum at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina, across the highway from Huntington Beach, held more than just postcards for sale. There, Miss Genevieve and Cousin Corrie, Hostesses at Brookgreen Gardens in the 1950s, also displayed mementoes and artifacts related to the history of Brookgreen and the Lowcountry.

 

One photograph of an older man with long white hair and a bushy white beard drew frequent attention from visitors. They regularly identified him as Walt Whitman and inquired about his connection to Brookgreen Gardens.

 

Miss Genevieve patiently explained that this was not the famous poet but was Brookgreen’s longtime resident and much beloved physician, “Dr. Wardie” Flagg. When visitors were interested, Miss Genevieve encouraged Cousin Corrie to tell his sad story and the history of what local people called The Flagg Flood, the tragic 1893 hurricane at Huntington Beach (then called Magnolia Beach) and the Flagg family.

 

Here is a portion of that story as Cousin Corrie, Hostess at the popular South Carolina tourist attraction, explained it to visitors . . .

 

The morning of Friday, the thirteenth of October, 1893 dawned gray and rainy on our South Carolina coast. Wind howled. Waves crashed along the shore. A storm was surely coming, but how strong would it be? A mild gale? A hurricane? No one knew in those days before radio, television, or hurricane-tracking airplanes.

Dr. Allard Belin Flagg of the Hermitage awoke early to the gray and stormy day. Now a widower, he and his unmarried daughter Alice lived together in his home on the mainland seashore at Murrells Inlet. (Dr. Allard had named his daughter “Alice” for his long deceased sister. I'm sure you already know the story of that earlier Alice of the Hermitage.)

Most mornings, Dr. Allard and Miss Alice could look out from the Hermitage across a mile of marsh and salt water creeks to see three Flagg family beach houses dotting the sandy barrier island of Magnolia Beach, just like today we can see houses on Garden City Beach across the marsh from Murrells Inlet. But this October morning, driving hurricane rains obscured the view of Magnolia Beach. Dr. Allard and Miss Alice added a prayer that the storm would pass quickly to their morning devotions, then sat down to the hot breakfast their two family servants had prepared.

Many Allard relatives summered in those houses on Magnolia Beach. One was Dr. Allard’s unmarried son, Allard Belin Flagg III, whom the others called Cousin Allard. Seemingly the only male Flagg NOT to become a physician, Cousin Allard had built his house a short walk north along the strand toward the inlet mouth from the two other Flagg houses. One of these other houses belonged to Dr. Allard’s brother (and Dr. Wardie’s father), Dr. Arthur Belin Flagg. The other belonged to another of Dr. Arthur's sons, young Dr. Arthur Belin Flagg, Jr. They, their families, and their servants usually spent the summer there on the beach where cooling sea breezes made the Southern heat more bearable and kept away malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

That stormy morning, the households of both of the Dr. Arthurs also sat down to hot breakfasts in their respective homes on Magnolia Beach. Increasing wind and rain had repeatedly disturbed the sleep of the adults throughout the night, but all tried to hide their anxiety from the children.

At that same time, Cousin Allard was eating his own breakfast at his house up the beach. He and his manservant were making their morning meal from last night’s cold cornbread however, because he had sent his cook back to the mainland with another servant the evening before when they had become concerned about the threatening weather.

Young Cousin Allard had chosen to remain at the beach. He always enjoyed watching winds drive waves along the shore and looked forward to the adventure of riding out a storm at the beach. The equally adventurous young servant chose to remain with him.

Shortly after breakfast, the storm's fury suddenly increased. Vicious wind and rain lashed windows as the sky grew darker. The crashing ocean surged up the strand, ever closer to the beach houses. Rising waters began flooding backyards from the creek side, cutting off any chance of escape to the mainland.

As the two men stood watching from Cousin Allard’s front porch, each house became an island in a sea of churning waves.

Although Cousin Allard’s beach house was smaller than the other Flagg houses, like them, it had several outbuildings. The shed where Allard stabled his horse and a separate kitchen that kept the heat and threat of fire away from the main house stood in the back yard. As the water continued to rise, Cousin Allard and his servant fought their way through the stinging, drenching rain to lead his horse out of the rapidly flooding shed. They turned him loose, knowing that the horse had a better chance of survival in the open rather than trapped inside the building.

Having completed this task, the two men struggled back to the house through swirling, waist-deep water. Rain continued to pelt them unmercifully. At last, they reached the back door and made their way inside, shutting out the storm’s fury.

They felt secure inside the sturdy wooden building, even as the wind howled and waves grew higher outside. Then water climbed the front porch steps. When breaking waves began pounding against the front of the house, Allard opened the front door to relieve pressure on the structure. Waves now raced through the house, front to back, covering wide pine floorboards with inches, then feet, of seawater.

Cousin Allard and his servant made their way up to the second floor ahead of the rising ocean. But larger and larger waves battered the wooden structure until it began to give way under the water’s crushing weight. Front walls collapsed inward with a mighty screech as the roof sagged slowly on top of them. Luckily, this gave the two men time to escape through back windows . . . escape, but into raging waters.

Tumbling in the churning inferno, choking on mouthfuls of salty water, Cousin Allard and his servant found themselves grabbing for slabs of siding in the cresting breakers. Fortunately, the roaring wind and waves pushed them rapidly into what looked like a raft, actually the floating roof of the backyard kitchen! A haven in the surrounding chaos. Both men scrambled aboard, only to be greeted by another bedraggled passenger: the kitchen’s yowling and spitting cat!

Although they could see only dimly through the driving rain and breaking waves, Allard and his servant sensed the storm pushing their makeshift raft toward the mainland. And what was that dark object moving toward them in the water? Cousin Allard’s horse appeared, swimming strongly through the waves! Allard called to the animal, which seemed to recognize his master and continued to follow behind the raft.

Frightening and exhausting hours followed but the two men, the cat, and the horse remained alive amid slashing wind and pounding waves.

Suddenly, bushes loomed out of the storm. No, those were treetops! Waves had carried them to shore. But now, these same waves battered the men and their raft against branches and trunks of live oaks and pines rising out of the flood. The two men and the cat continued to cling to the kitchen roof with every scrap of strength. The horse could not touch bottom and soon disappeared swimming farther inland.

~ ~ ~

At last, the winds began to subside. Waters receded all along the coast. Out came the afternoon sun.

After the weather cleared at the Hermitage, Dr. Allard, Miss Alice, and the servants emerged from the house, thankful that the storm had caused them little damage there on the mainland. But when they gazed across the marsh, a chilling sight met their eyes. No houses stood on Magnolia Beach!

As the rest of the household stood weeping on the shore, Dr. Allard turned silently and disappeared into his study, always a stern and private man. One can only wonder about his horror and his fear for his relatives.

Miraculously, young Allard, his manservant, his cat, and his horse all survived the storm! The winds had even lodged their raft on the shore close to the Hermitage itself! The adventuresome pair’s unforgettable ride at least gave one Flagg household some reason to rejoice on that Friday the thirteenth, the day of The Flagg Flood.