the hurricane of 1938 as seen through the eyes of four high school students and others in...
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The Hurricane of 1938
The hurricane of 1938 as seen through the eyes of
four high school students and others in Marlborough
Peter B. Snyder
The winning essay in the
2011 Marlborough Historical SocietyScholarship Competition
The Marlborough Historical Society
Marlborough, Massachusetts
www.HistoricMarlborough.org
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Seventy-threeyears ago on September 21st
four high school students from
Marlborough along with the rest of the town, in fact along with all of New England,
experienced something that had not happened in over a century in the northeast. One of
the high schoolersencountered it while commuting in a Model A Ford; another was
caught unaware on his cot in the kitchen; one teen had a hilarious run in with a self-
appointed crossing guard; and the last student saw an unforgettable sight out her
bathroom window. This was the great Hurricane of 1938!
The storm formed near Africa in the Azores on the tenth of September. It
continued to head straight to Florida,
however the wind from the west and a
southerly wind pushed the storm up
towards Long Island and New England
rather than curving away as was expected.
The category four hurricanes eye was40
mileswide, with a 200 mile diameter
of swirling winds.
Charles F. Brooks, founder of the American Meteorological Society, and former
Director of the Blue Hill Observatory, was quoted in Minsingers book,The 1938
Hurricane,This vortex rushed northward to Long Island and New England with the
speed of an express train, augmenting wind velocity to extremes of about 120 mph on the
east of the path of the center.1What made this hurricane in particular so unusual was that
1Minsinger, William Elliott, M.D. The 1938 Hurricane. Randolph Center, Vermont,
Greenhills Books, 1988: 10.
Fig. 1. Goddard, Steven. Chart of path of Hurricane of1938.http://stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com/
2010/09/800px-1938_new_england_hurricane_track.png?w=640&h=396
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it ran up the eastern seaboard so fast and so straight. Most hurricanes lose speed when
they hit land and veer off to the Atlantic. The Hurricane of 1938 did neither, it
maintained its straight course and went all the way up the Connecticut River Valley into
Vermont and even into Canada.
Weather advisories had been issued, however given the unexpected
speed,traveling at fifty mph, a lack of advanced metrological equipment, and no quick
easy way to spread the word, save for the radio which really was more for light
entertainment at the time, there was little that they could do to warn the populace.
Arthur Marsan who lived in Marlborough for many years said,
I was 16 years old, and had just started attending Worcester Trade School
that fall, being trained as an electrician. The winds were really picking up.
As we were looking out the school window from our electrical class on the
4th
floor, we said Man look at that wind and rain! Then all of a sudden
we hear, O.K. class is dismissed.
I think it was about 11 oclock in
the morning. The school cleared
out fast. We were in a Model A,
real fancy. Most of the cars were
owned by older guys. And they would pack as many as you could pack in,
sometimes five of us or as many as eight, if someone needed a ride.
Wed come up to Shrewsbury center, into Northborough to drop off some
of the guys. The police cordoned off the area in Shrewsbury due to
downed electrical wires. The trees were down and we couldnt get any
Fig. 2. Model A Ford.
http://www.anyupholstery.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Model_A_Ford.29693941_large.jpg
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farther. So okay we turned around and went back. We were driving
against the wind and the Model A, being a light car, we were sitting up
high. We really could feel that wind. All the way back we were saying,
Gee I hope we make it. We had no idea it was a hurricane. All we knew
was it was a heavy rain storm.
John Noble,(pictured right) another lifelong resident of Marlborough, recalled,
I was a freshman at Marlborough High in what is now the Walker Building.
I was at Glee Club rehearsal.Somebody heard that the storm was coming, and
I guess that the wind was starting to blow or
something, and suddenly they sent us all
home. By the time I got home [146 Prospect
Street], the storm was getting pretty wild. It
obviously by then was going to be a terrific
storm, but we were not expecting a
hurricane.
So my father immediately woke my brother and told him to go to the shoe
factory on Howland Street where my mother worked. He told him, Get up
there and walk your mother home. Thank God he did that, because it was
picking up by that time. He got her back, but I dont know what the factory
did with everyone else. I was just happy to have my mother home.
Clearly nobody would ever even think that a hurricane of such magnitude was
possible here in our city. In the MarlboroughEnterprise the news on the day of the storm
consisted of two actors being paired in a movie for the seventh time and savings on
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groceries. The next day on the twenty-second, obviously, there was a drastic change in
the news.For starters theEnterprise was published in Framingham that day due to storm
related issues. Also it would seem the vultures did not take long to take advantage of the
situation, as there were already ads for house damage repair and insurance. Interestingly
enough regular news such as dresses for the season and comics were still to be found in
the paper despite the hurricane.2
During the storm Leonard Tremblay over on 51 Grant Street was at home in their
third floor apartment not doing too much. I was 15 years old, he reminisced. I had
injured my knee at school and had to have stitches. So I was laid up on a cot in the
kitchen recovering. My family was with me in the kitchen, when all of a sudden the
chimney came down. I wasnt hurt, only plaster came down and covered me, it was a
mess. We didnt realize it was a hurricane.
When a member of the current Immaculate Conception
Choir, Phyllis Fortin Tremblay (pictured left), was asked if she
remembered this storm, she gasped, saying that she quite
clearly remembered it, and, more importantly, she saw the
moment that the Immaculate Conception parish steeple fell.
There are many stories associated with this hurricane, Im
sure. But I vividly remember seeing the Immaculate
Conception Church steeple go down, Mrs. Tremblay started. You might
ask: how could we see the I.C. steeple fall? Visualize our house on the
top of Washington Street, number 58. We, the Fortin family, were on the
2Marlborough Enterprise, September 22, 1938, page 1
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second floor apartment, my aunt and uncle owned the house. If you
walked to the back of the apartment (pictured
right), the bathroom window faced out toward
Prospect Street, right in alignment with the
Church steeple.
My aunt and uncle and my parents were at
home. I dont know whether the factories let
people go home or not. But I think that they
must have let them out because my parents there. My father worked at the
Diamond M (I think that was the name) Shoe Factory on Pleasant Street.
And my aunt and uncle worked at the Curtis Shoe Factory on Cotting
Avenue. My mother took care of my aunts only child, my cousin, we
were closer than sisters. All of my family lived on Washington Street.
There were seven of us living upstairs looking through the small bathroom
window. There were no houses in the way, and the steeple was very very
tall, about 100 feet tall. We could see it swaying. Absolutely! We were
just gasping with awe watching out the window. We saw it sway about a
half dozen times or so. We stayed right there and saw it go for good, right
on Judge McDonalds big round porch. The steeple didnt hit the house
proper, but mostly it knocked the porch down.
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However had the steeple fallen it would find nobody to smash since a heroic
patrolman, EugeneMullane, had just saved the people in the house. According to the
Marlborough
Enterprise,Eugene was
on his beat when he saw
the hundred foot steeple
waving in the hundred
mile per hour wind and
saw that the steeple was
going to fall to the north.
Since the late judges house was no less than fifty
feet away he rushed in to the house telling them to get
out.OfficerMullane then went into the next house
belonging to Miss Mary Campbell and evacuated her too.
No sooner were the people out then the resounding crash
of the steeple was heard leveling [the McDonalds] front
porch to kindling wood3
3Marlborough Enterprise, September 22, 1938, page 1.
Fig. 3. Immaculate Conception Church minus its 100 foot steeple. From postcard courtesy ofJohn Noble, printed by Tichnor Bros. Inc. 160 No. Wash. St., Boston, Mass.
Fig. 4. Immaculate Conception Church with repairman on top. Alatalo, Susan with theMarlborough Historical Society,Images of America Marlborough, Charleston, South
Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 2003: 91.
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The four local residents toldother stories besides the ones about the terrible
strength of the storm, but there were two pertinent taleswhich were quite amusing.Mr.
Marsan(pictured below) told a story that happened during the hurricane,
[M]y father and I were looking over the street and walking around
retrieving whatever we could. Our neighbor, Dick, who lived two doors
down the street liked to bend the elbow a bit too much. By then
he was feeling no pain. He had a metal roof that was built in
slots like layers. One of the layers had just come off, just rolled
off, rolling UP the street. My father said, Ive got to go stop
him, hes going to cut his arm off if he retrieves it, because the
guy was running after his roof trying to stop it. My father said,
Its a good thing hes feeling good. Even today I can see clearly old Dick
running trying to catch his roof.
In fact there were two funny stories about drunks that day.According to Mr.
Noble after he was dismissed from school, as he was walking up Prospect Street to get to
his house [t]here was this fellow directing traffic at Lincoln and Prospect. He said to
me, Alright now, move along before somebody else gets killed. I said, Why? Did
somebody get killed? He said, No, but I might. I then discovered that he had a little
smell of the brewery. Laughingly I recall that was all right, I guess he had appointed
himself to that job.
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As a result of the hurricane, Marlborough was placed under martial law to ensure
against looting.Despite the drunks there was no record of looting during the aftermath,
but just to be safe the WPA and National Guard were called in.4
A strange quirk is that the clean-upin Marlborough apparently was relatively
quick (well the major things to make sure that life could continue easily, for instance
schools in session, most power restored, and roads cleared). This could be inferred from
the fact that in theEnterprisethe next week there was a brief article about the aftermath of
the storm in Connecticut, but not much else. 5
Yes the clean-up of the some 275,000,000 trees darkening the houses of
seven-eighths of those served by power lines, and cutting off nearly one-third of the
telephones, would of course take a while to fix and the fact that 1,675 head of
livestock, and one-half to three-quarters of a million chickens were killed, would
certainly be a hindrance, life in Marlborough at any rate would carry on. The fallen
steeples of many churches were repaired at least a year later, although the Immaculate
Conception Church never had its steeples grand height or its four clocks restored.By the
next day, by 10 A.M. all of the factories save 2 were fully functional again.
However one thing that was not immediately reopened, much to the joy of the
students, was the schools! It was sort of exciting and having school off for the next two
days too, said Mrs. Tremblay. Even Mr. Marsan and Mr. Noble admitted to being glad
for lack of school, with Mr. Noble saying, I guess the important thing to me, at that age,
was that there was no school until Monday. On Saturday the Marlborough Enterprise
4 Marlborough Enterprise, September 22, 1938, page 15 Marlborough Enterprise, September 26, 1938, page 1
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warned the students not to touch any fallen wires or hanging limbs as they still proved a
threat.6
Although this storm took quite a toll on all of New England and Long Island, in
Marlborough, Massachusetts, we carried on strong, never for a moment letting ourselves
be hindered by a strong hurricane and, whats more, we are fortunate to have vivid stories
from our senior citizens.
6Marlborough Enterprise, September 24, 1938, page 1.
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WORKS CITED
Alatalo, Susan with the Marlborough Historical Society,Images of America
Marlborough, Charleston, South Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 2003: 91 photo of
churchsteeple.
Any Upholstery. Model A Ford. http://www.anyupholstery.com/yahoo_site_admin/
assets/images/Model_A_Ford.29693941_large.jpg
Goddard, Steven, Chart. http://stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/
800px-1938_new_england_hurricane_track.png?w=640&h=396
M
arlborough Enterprise, September 21 through October 1, 1938.
Marsan, Arthur, Personal interview, March 9, 2011.
Minsinger, William Elliott, M.D., The 1938 Hurricane, Randolph Center, Vermont,
Greenhills Books, 1988: 9-15.
Noble, John, Personal interview, March 12, 2011.
Tichnor Bros. Inc. Immaculate Conception Church minus its 100 foot steeple. Picture
postcard, courtesy of John Noble, Tichnor Bros. Inc. 160 No. Wash. St., Boston,
Mass.
Tremblay, Leonard, Personal interview, March 11, 2011.
Tremblay, Phyllis Fortin,Personal interview, March 11, 2011.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alatalo, Susan with the Marlborough Historical Society,Images of America
Marlborough, Charleston, South Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 2003: 91 photo of
churchsteeple.
Allen, Everett S. A Wind To Shake The World: The Story of the 1938 Hurricane.
Boston, Toronto, Little Brown and Company. 1976.
Any Upholstery. Model A Ford. http://www.anyupholstery.com/yahoo_site_admin/
assets/images/Model_A_Ford.29693941_large.jpg
Goddard, Steven, Chart. http://stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/
800px-1938_new_england_hurricane_track.png?w=640&h=396
Marlborough Enterprise, September 21 through October 1, 1938.
Marsan, Arthur, Personal interview, March 9, 2011.
Minsinger, William Elliott, M.D., The 1938 Hurricane, Randolph Center, Vermont,
Greenhills Books, 1988: 9-15.
Noble, John, Personal interview, March 12, 2011.
Perley, Sidney. Historic Storms of New England. Beverly, Massachusetts. Memoirs
Unlimited, Inc. 2001.
Scotti, R. A. Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938. Boston New York London,
Little Brown and Company. 2003.
Tichnor Bros. Inc. Immaculate Conception Church minus its 100 foot steeple. Picture
postcard, courtesy of John Noble, Tichnor Bros. Inc. 160 No. Wash. St., Boston,
Mass.
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Tremblay, Leonard, Personal interview, March 11, 2011.
Tremblay, Phyllis Fortin, Personal interview, March 11, 2011.