Did you see a house float past?
So allow us to introduce the subject of this sketch, Mr. Lacy
Simpson Stoner, and inform you Holly Bluff, Mississippi, was his
destination.
Arrived, he had hardly become oriented when the rising
Mississippi started his house toward New Orleans and the Gulf.
Fortunately it lodged in some nearby trees, and as the river
receded, he, aided by block and tackle, floated and pulled it
back to its original or approximately original position, where it
was made more secure.
In speaking of these floods, Mr. Stoner said, "It was nothing in
those days to have some man from up the River come along and
inquire, 'Did you see a three room, part-yaller house goin' by
here in the last day or two?'"
Crops were good, with fair prices. He plowed back the profits
into more and more land and better and better mechanical
equipment.
And he took time to come back to Indiana and claim his bride, a
Lafayette girl, the present Mrs. Stoner.
Again the rains came and the water flooded their first floor.
They moved what they could to the second floor, where the water
soon caught up with them. They tied some of the better and more
useful articles up among the rafters, and had just selected the
spot to chop out through the roof, to get to the boat which was
moored to the house, when the crest of the flood was reached and
the water slowly subsided.
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