Young Victim of 1943 Great Flood
- Lawrence Lore
- Oct 1, 2025
- 2 min read
The great Lawrence County flood in 1943 cost several lives and caused a great loss of crops for area farmers. Large areas of protected farm land were swept with flood waters when the Maxwell levee gave way flooding nearby fields. The water was the highest since the 1937 flood when the water was 30 inches above the floor of the 10th street bridge.
In the evening of May 12, 1943, 15-year-old Eldon Grant Hedrick of Lawrenceville went wading with some friends on the 10th street bridge where the water covered the floor of the bridge again.
Coroner’s witness, William R Irvin, 15, also from Lawrenceville, was with his friend Eldon and several other boys that evening. He described the water as covering the floor of the bridge with a bare spot of floor in the center.
Eldon was wading along the edge on the east side, near the north end of the bridge, approaching a nearby utility pole when he stepped into a ditch and went under where the water was over his head. He drifted with the current, struggling, carried east, then north, and then east again. He could not swim.
Phillip Gore testified at Inquest that he had gone to the river bridge to see the high water and was about 50 feet south of the bridge. He saw 5-6 boys on the bridge and stated that water did cover the bridge. While he did not see Eldon fall into the water, he did see him floating in the water east of the bridge, and thought at first he was swimming. When he did not see his arms moving, Phillip Gore realized the boy must have fallen in. He last saw Eldon about 300 yards east of the bridge in the water.
A search was done that night and the next day with no body found.
Robert L Kelly who lived on a little knoll just northeast of the 10th street bridge, testified that his family and the boys who worked for him at the Mill had been watching for the body in the water. Around 11:00 a.m. on May 17, 1943, his wife spotted the body lodged on a fence and called the sheriff. Robert Kelly then got a boat and went out to recover the body.
The inquest held at the Emmons Funeral Home by Coroner Dr. CG Stoll rendered a verdict of accidental drowning.
Research and story by Julia Randall
