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Society

Miss Ashley Henderson and Matthew Hester to wed June 14

Matthew P. Hester and Ashley L. Henderson

Ashley L. Henderson of Byhalia and Matthew P. Hester of Red Banks announce their forthcoming marriage June 14, 2008.

Ashley is the daughter of Ronnie and Brenda Henderson of Byhalia. Biological parents are Marie Henderson and David Henderson, both of Byhalia.

She is the granddaughter of Lawrence and Isolde Davis of Byhalia, the late Olen and Artie Henderson of Memphis, Tenn., the late Barbara Bartlett of Memphis, Tenn., and Gerald Henderson of Byhalia and the late Patricia Fletcher of Byhalia.

She is a 2007 graduate of Plaza Beauty School for Cosmetology and is currently employed with Citizens Bank.

Matt is the son of Lucretia Hester of Red Banks and Kenny Hester of Byhalia.

He is the grandson of Billie and the late Arthur (Junior) Hester of Byhalia, and Aubrey and Patsy Floyd of Red Banks and the great-grandson of Daughtery Gray and the late Durl Gray of Red Banks.

He is a 2003 graduate of Friendship Christian Academy and is currently employed with H&E Equipment.

The wedding will be held at 4 p.m. at Trevecca Manor in Red Banks. Pastor Douglas Bell will officiate. A reception will immediately follow.

Bridesmaids will be Erin Bordman and Cari Henderson; maid of honor, Hope Carson; flower girl will be April Glosson, and bell ringer will be Bailey Tate.

Groomsmen will be Jerry Carson and Travis Watkins; best man, Aubrey Floyd; ringer bearer will be Wesley Henderson.

Ushers will be Ronald Henderson and Donald Henderson. Candle lighters will be Elizabeth Galloway and David Henderson.

The couple plans to honeymoon at Disney World. Following the honeymoon, the couple will make their home in Red Banks.

All family and friends are cordially invited to attend the ceremony and reception.

Museuming
Lois Swanee
Museum Curator

Allergic to earthquakes on top of being a scaredy cat

Have you ever been in an earthquake? Were you in the Sunday night meeting at the First Baptist Church in 1954? I was, and all of a sudden, the church building began swaying. I thought there was something happening in my head, but in a few seconds, it was all over and no real damage was done except to my psyche. I’m allergic to earthquakes and I’m also a scaredy cat.

The earthquake then was forgotten until the fall of 1990 when a man named Iben Browning, who was a business consultant with a scientific pretensions company announced that another quake was due to happen on December 2, 1990. That was the first day of our second Christmas tour and Iben was ruining it! People listened and became alarmed by that man despite numerous scientific attacks on Browning’s methodology. People stockpiled water, flashlight batteries, plastic bags, food, and toilet paper. They bought earthquake insurance policies. Timid folks even left the state that day before the event was to happen. Every motel room in New Madrid, Mo., which was supposed to be the epicenter, was filled with news media from around the world, ready to cover the projected disaster.

December 2, 1990, passed with nary a tremor and the quake became the great non-event of the year. But it played havoc with our Christmas tour. People were sitting home waiting for the event to happen. The Christmas tour was really great too. On the tour for the first showing ever were Imokalea, West Hill and Fleur-de-Lys. Fleur-de-Lys had been open to the public once before in 1949. Other houses on the tour that year were Montrose and Cedarhurst.

But few people came as they were sitting home waiting for the earthquake. One woman had told me beforehand that she couldn’t come as the Tallahatchie Bridge might be out!

Mississippi wasn’t a state until December 10, 1817, so not much is recorded of what happened here in 1811 and 1812.

However, in Natchez there is a house built in 1790 where Andrew Jackson married Rachel in 1811 and it still has to this day a terrible scar across its face from the earthquake of 1811.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone lies in the heart of America along the Mississippi River Valley, extending from northeast Arkansas, western Tennessee, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky to southern Illinois.

In 1811-12, this area had one of the largest earthquakes in North America. Between 1811 and 1812, four catastrophic earthquakes, with magnitude estimated greater than 7.0 occurred during a three-month period. Hundreds of aftershocks followed over a period of several years. People thought the end of the world was beginning to happen. The largest earthquakes to have occurred since then were on January 4, 1843 and October 31, 1895 with magnitude estimates of 6.0 and 6.2 respectively.

In addition to these events around this area, seven quakes of magnitude of 5.0 have occurred. Instruments were installed about 1974 to measure seismic activity and since then 4000 earthquakes have happened; they are happening all the time but are too small to be noticed. However, according to the pictures hanging on my walls, earthquakes are happening every day as my house, which was built in 1839, is firmly anchored in the ground.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is so named because New Madrid, Mo., was the closest town to the earthquake of 1811 and 1812. At that time, St. Louis and other major cities in the central United States were sparsely settled. At least three of the series of earthquakes at that time were felt throughout much of the United States and as far away as Quebec in Canada.

History has a way of repeating itself but we hope it won’t be anytime in the near future. Earthquakes usually give a few tremors (like a rattlesnake rattling) before they strike and even then, where will you go?

The first steamboat travel on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers took place during the New Madrid earthquakes. The boat “New Orleans” set out from Pittsburgh on October 20, 1811 bound for New Orleans. Captain Nicholas Roosevelt brought along his young wife and 2-year-old daughter and a Labador dog. Ten days after leaving Pittsburgh, his wife Lydia gave birth to a son in Louisville, Ky. They waited awhile for her to recover, then proceeded down the river. On the night before the day of the biggest earthquake, December 16, the steamboat was anchored near Owensboro, Ky., about 200 miles east of New Madrid, Mo. Their dog, Tiger, stayed right with them in the cabin instead of sleeping on deck. The dog alerted them of oncoming tremors. Without realizing it, they were heading straight towards the epicenter of the greatest earthquake in American history. They tied up to an island and the island sank in the night. Falling trees, collapsing river banks, disappearing islands were all around them. But, they made it to New Orleans after traveling 1,900 miles from Pittsburgh on the first steamboat to travel the Mississippi River.

Interestingly, the Indian Chief Tecumseh had predicted this great disaster was coming to pass and he didn’t have a radio or any outside help. He was elevated to hero status even more after this. Even white people admired him and white mothers named their babies Tecumseh.

Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee was formed that year. It is supposed to be bottomless, but you can tell it isn’t because of the trees growing in it. There is an account of seismic events happening when the Ohio River flowed into the Mississippi River. Maybe that’s when it flowed backward, but earthquakes were happening all over the world.

On the other side of the world, Napoleon was marching into Russia to capture Moscow and they thought Napoleon was the anti-Christ. The Russians deserted Moscow as winter of 1811-12 was settling in. When the French arrived, there was nobody to meet them, there was no food, the winter was particularly cold. Talk about a time of turmoil!

When the French began to march out of Russia in early spring, the Russians started shooting at them and Napoleon’s army was already sickly from the winter. The fragment of Frenchmen who returned to France didn’t consider Russia a defeat but it definitely was. Rumblings of spasmodic earthquakes were shaking the ground as they were walking out.

Once I was in Costa Rica a few years ago and as I walked across the living room floor, it began to shake and I thought, “We’re having an earthquake!” But the epicenter of the earthquake was in Honduras, two countries away and no real damage happened in Costa Rica. When I came back to the United States, I flew to California.

As I got off the plane, the earth was shaking and I thought, “That earthquake followed me to California!”

Come and visit us at the Square Museum at 111 Van Dorn Ave., 662- 252-3669; visit our website at www.mchmuseum.com or write us an email at marshallcomuseum@bellsouth.net.

Swanee’s Good News Happy Hour

On the radio show “Swanee’s Good News Happy Hour” on Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. on WKRA radio on your AM dial, forest ranger in charge of Chewalla, Joel Gardner will tell us about Chewalla Park and how great it is! It’s a natural lake that the Indians used. Molly May McAlexander will tell us about her antique business and Keri Barnes will tell of her marvelous invention of a health product that is good for you.

Remember this week the show will be moved to 3 p.m. until 4 p.m.

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