Here at the Patrick Heath Public Library, we love celebrating Texas and Texas writers. It is fitting, considering we live in a town named in honor of activist and writer/poet Ludwig Börne and are located in a county named for George W. Kendall, widely considered our country’s first international war correspondent.
Last month, Natalie Morgan shared with you all a brief history on a few other writers from our past. This month, I’d like to pass on a story brought to life from a current writer in Kendalia, retired librarian Donna Doring Jonas.
In 2012, Jonas wrote a lovely history of Kendalia, taking many years to painstakingly research the families and events that carved a settlement from the northeast corner of the county.
In 2014, she shared a dramatic narrative story with us for the archives newsletter that I thought was of particular interest given our current drought situation and a cautionary tale that many old-timers know about the dangers of flash flooding and dry beds. I hope you enjoy. And if you are interested in more history, send me a note at stauber@boernelibrary. org and I will add you to the quarterly email historical newsletter produced by the archives.
Without further ado, here’s Donna: Springtime had arrived in Kendalia in April 1925. The two Lux sisters, Hilda, age 11, and Lonie, age 8, were preparing for school with Lonie finishing off her attire with a bright, colorful scarf around her neck.
School satchels in hand, they began the trek down the hill and across the field toward Curry’s Creek School. At the creek, they gingerly made their way across the old log and hurried along to the white one-room school building. Hedwig Sopp, the single teacher, began the school day with 36 children.
As Miss Sopp moved from grade to grade assigning lessons, hard rain began pounding the tin roof, making it difficult to hear. Undisturbed, the teacher continued the curriculum and recitation for each grade.
The rain continued unabated, and at lunch time the children pulled out their lunch cans and ate biscuits with honey or cornbread with slices of hard sausage, ham or home-cured bacon. During recess, the children forlornly watched the rain, and by mid-afternoon, with the sky a dark angry grey, uneasiness drifted throughout the schoolroom.
Back home in the Lux residence, Charles Lux had become concerned for his daughters. With such a downpour, he had often seen Curry’s Creek go quickly from a meandering lazy stream to a dangerously swollen flood. His wife, Clara, expecting their fourth child due in July (Freddy Lux), was tending Walter, age 4. Finally, Charles donned his rain attire, saddled two horses and began riding down the hill toward the creek.
His assumptions proved true. Curry’s Creek was on a rise. He hurried to the school, telling Miss Sopp that he would try to take other children to safety as well as his own.
Lonie and Hilda mounted one horse while Mr. Lux, Anna Scharmann and Paul Syring mounted the other. As they crossed the swollen creek, suddenly the horse carrying Hilda and Lonie slipped, plunging into the water. Both girls were swept off into the current.
Quickly, Mr. Lux grabbed Hilda, but Lonie vanished in the muddy stream. Panic stricken, Mr. Lux dispatched Paul to alert the neighbors to help search for Lonie.
Grave concern gripped the father’s heart for just several hundred yards down the creek was the Little Falls and further down the famous Edge Falls where water cascaded down 30 to 40 feet with tremendous force into an enormous pool. And Lonie did not know how to swim.
Word spread to the town of Kendalia, and soon local townsfolk rallied to search for the lost child. A shout rang out when Lonie’s school satchel was found caught in debris, but alas, no sign of Lonie.
As Earl Edge drew near the Little Falls, his eye spotted a colorful scarf and there was Lonie, drenched and hanging on with all her might to a low limb above the creek. Earl sent word back, but stayed to encourage Lonie to hang on.
Soon, Charles Lux and the men were making plans for Lonie’s rescue. Tom Edge had the strongest swimming horse, but since Charles Lux didn’t know how to swim, Willie Ludolf insisted on riding the horse through the flooded stream to bring the child to safety.
Within minutes, Lonie was rescued and placed safely into her father’s arms. When telling of her ordeal, Lonie had been terrified seeing a snake swimming beside her. She had hung on the low limb for three long hours.
Lonie was so grateful that for years to come, she would point out to her children, “There’s the man who saved my life.”
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