Author: Jessica A. Bandel
The conspicuous courage of one North Carolina man earned him national recognition even before he joined the war. In July 1916, just nine months before the country’s formal war declaration, the remnants of two hurricanes collided over Western North Carolina, inundating the area with record rainfall. The result was catastrophic. Landslides wiped out whole families. Currents ripped babies from their parents’ arms. Rivers washed away thousands of jobs.
When the water finally receded, at least fifty lay dead, damages totaled in the millions of dollars, and a thick black sludge remained where fields of corn and other grains once stood. The scope of the destruction was almost inconceivable. Small, sleepy hamlets and bustling industrialized towns alike were devastated.
In Morganton, the Catawba River swelled well above its banks, cutting off Joseph L. Duckworth’s store from land and stranding Joseph’s son Alphonso. Alphonso had been attempting to salvage account books and business funds when a sudden surge of water turned the store into an island. With each passing moment, the water rose, forcing Alphonso first to the second floor and then to the roof. The situation was dire. From the edge of the angry river, a gathering crowd grew anxious for a solution. A pledge of $1,200 was quickly raised for anyone who would attempt the rescue.
Only one man stepped forward, twenty-five-year-old William P. Clark. The six-foot-tall, 190-pound Clark put in a half mile upriver in a fifteen-foot boat, riding the twenty mile per hour current to the store. Alphonso climbed aboard with the records and money in hand, and the two men made their way for shore. When the townsfolk attempted to award Clark the $1,200 purse, he flatly and unflinchingly refused it, saying he would risk his life for his neighbor but not for a sum of money.
Clark’s selfless courage would not go unrewarded, however. C. E. Gregory, a pastor at a Presbyterian church in Morganton, reported Clark’s heroism to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Established in 1904 by American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the fund seeks to recognize those who “risk their lives to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.” Following a thorough investigation of the rescue, the Carnegie Hero Fund awarded Clark $1,000 and a bronze medal. This recognition Clark humbly accepted.
When the call went out for volunteers again in April 1917, Clark was the first Burke County native to enlist. Over the course of the next twenty months, Clark split his time between the 3rd Company, Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Delaware and the 306th Trench Mortar Battery. He served stateside, without issue, until the fall of 1918 when he became one of an estimated five hundred million people worldwide to contract the H1N1 influenza virus. Clark survived the scare but struggled with related health effects for the rest of his short life.
In late December 1918, the young man was honorably discharged from the service with the rank of sergeant. Soon after the war’s end, tuberculosis—said to be stemming from the effects of the flu—set upon Clark’s lungs, necessitating his hospitalization in a tubercular ward at Oteen military hospital outside Asheville. He died there on April 28, 1925, leaving behind his widow Ruth and his six-year-old daughter Margaret.
Interested in learning more about the 1916 flood? I recommend The Floods of July, 1916: How the Southern Railway Organization Met an Emergency. It is available online in its entirety at no cost and is full of images of the damages incurred throughout the mountain region of the state. More information on the Carnegie Hero Fund, which is still in operation, can be found by following the link.
Lastly, I cannot recommend too highly the "Jesse Morris Photographs of Oteen Hospital, Oteen, North Carolina" collection held by Ramsey Library at UNC Asheville. It contains 276 images of Oteen, all from the early years of the hospital's operation. The images can be viewed online for free here, thanks to the great efforts of the library's special collections staff.