St. Michaels Map and History

When Pigs Fly . . .

by A.M. Foley

OK, maybe pigs can’t fly, but they sure can swim. When fattened hogs resided in many Depressionera farmyards, about to morph into pantry staples come fall, porcine aquatics were sometimes common. Synchronized swims occurred when a late-summer hurricane swept over low-lying Chesapeake communities, preempting routine. August 23, 1933 was such a day, when an epic storm sent water surging over low-lying Bay dwellings. That day, many a weighty sow morphed into Esther Williams.

In Recipes and Recollections, compiled in 2006 by the Oxford fire company’s Ladies Auxiliary, one longtime resident recalled:

“Ben Forest’s father had a soft crab business on the pier and also had pig pens there. During the storm of ’33, the pigs swam out of the pen. There were hogs at many places around town, including Valliant’s Marine by the Strand.”

On the Eastern Shore, old-timers spoke simply of “The August Storm.” Until that day in 1933, the benchmark for flooding on Hoop-

St. Michaels Map and History

© John Norton

On the broad Miles River, with its picturesque tree-lined streets and beautiful harbor, St. Michaels has been a haven for boats plying the Chesapeake and its inlets since the earliest days. Here, some of the handsomest models of the Bay craft, such as canoes, bugeyes, pungys and some famous Baltimore Clippers, were designed and built. The Church, named “St. Michael’s,” was the first building erected (about 1677) and around it clustered the town that took its name.

For a walking tour and more history of the St. Michaels area visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/st-michaels-maryland/.

ers Island had been the Centennial Storm of 1876. The August Storm exceeded the Centennial by two and a half feet, an exemplar of a “hundred-year storm” before the term became familiar.

Across Chesapeake Bay, some called it “The Great Flood of 1933.” When it struck St. Georges Island, one couple living near the shore waded for higher ground, leaving their hogs sheltered on their house porch. When the surge receded, they returned to find the house washed off its foundation and hogs asleep in their bed.

On the Atlantic coast, many profited from the inlet that the August Storm created, separating Ocean City from Assateague Island. This happenstance carved a fine harbor for Atlantic fishermen, but the storm brought few (if any) benefits west of the growing resort town. With no pithy name for a hurricane, one Bayside newspaper headlined:

County Swept by Destructive North East Storm North East Gale and Tidal Wave Leave Wide Area in State of Destruction

The following article reported, “Hundreds of acres that never tasted salt water submerged beneath high seas whipped by terrific hur-

ricane.” Losses mentioned included thousands of chickens, horses, hogs, cows, sheep, smokehouses, barns, corn cribs, meat and provisions, growing crops, furniture, boats and pound nets.

As pigs couldn’t fly, neither could chickens with clipped wings. Surviving fowl roosted in trees and on roofs. In 1933, many people lived life on the edge; loss of a family’s flock loomed large. For want of cash, homemakers traded in eggs at local stores.

David Sayre, an island youngster whose family lost their home to the surge, described the aftermath to an interviewer: “The day after the storm was one of the most beautiful days that you ever saw. The wind was very mild. The sun was brighter, and the atmosphere was very clear. I went to my sailboat, put up the mast and sail…to see if I could find some of our furniture. I found four or five broken chairs, one of which we used later, but the greatest shock was a red handbag hanging on a tree limb around two miles up-river….It was my mother’s bag with twenty-six cents inside, one quarter and one penny…put in the bag three or four days before. This was her insurance money, twenty-six cents a month. These were the Great Depression days.”

For Slack Water, an oral history project of St. Mary’s College, Erskine Thompson was interviewed in 1995, his 80th year on St. Georges Island.

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When Pigs Fly moved it to the land for which he’d swapped his Quick Step and built on a two-room addition, only to have the house swept away that August. Another interview involved a family originally from Talbot County. Depending on the tide, their former homeplace of Bodkin Island is sometimes a mere memory off southern Kent Island, but residents carried knowledge of floods when moving to St. Georges Island. Granddaughter Norma Copado remembered being with her mother by a creek as the August Thompson’s childhood home sat on Storm began to wane: “Momma a piece of land for which his father stuck her finger down in the creek, had traded a 40-foot bateau. His tasted it, and she says, ‘It’s salt wadad then bought a two-room house ter.’” on the opposite end of St. Georges, Norma and her mother ran for

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