The Great Chicken Flood of 1892
When the waters of Grays Harbor rose in the night, the town's backyard livestock paid the ultimate price in a bizarre local tragedy.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The unusually high tide which occurred last Friday night brought grief and mourning to many chicken houses of the city and it is estimated that upwards of 200 young chickens fell victims to the grim destroyer. In all instances of loss the hens and broods were placed in coops on ground which is above the ordinary tide and no danger was apprehended by the happy families. But the cruel waters arose in their might, and being in the night, the heart-rending chirps and cackles for aid were unheard by the snoring neighbors. No pen can describe the scenes of anguish caused by the heartless flood. Cooped up as they were, the fond mothers were unable to do aught to save their perishing families. There was no opportunity for the acts of heroism which usually characterize disasters of this nature, and promising cockerels and infant pullets went down to death unhonored and unsung. Crazed with grief at the loss of their loved ones, in many instances the mothers wrapped their wings around them and with a wild cry eased their suffering hearts by sinking beneath the seething waters. We draw the curtain o'er the harrowing scene. J. W. Moore, the milkman lost sixty-five chickens; C. P. Weaver, forty odd; Alfred Anderson, twenty, and from all sides come sad tales of death and destruction.
“No pen can describe the scenes of anguish caused by the heartless flood.”
Aberdeen's relationship with the tides has always been precarious, though modern infrastructure now protects homes that once sat in flood-prone tide flats. The mock-heroic tone of this 1892 report highlights how early settlers dealt with the unpredictable, marshy reality of building a city on the edge of the Pacific.
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