On May 1 of that year, a group of Rochester women traveled in two cars to Red Wing, where they purchased birdbaths from a pottery factory. They had a nice picnic and probably talked about the plans for their gardens, and then they left for home. Meanwhile, the storms that were to leave a path of destruction in southeastern Minnesota gathered strength.
Shortly after the two cars left Lake City for Rochester, serious trouble began. The main car was driven by 44-year-old Alma Lawler. His passengers were his 5-year-old daughter, Betty Jane, and family friend Ethel M. Dodge, 34. By the cultural standards of the time, they were known as Mrs. WW Lawler of the Lawler Dry Cleaning Works and Mrs. Walter E. Dodge of the Dodge Lumber Company.
Reports of what happened on the road near Oak Center that afternoon are still hard to fathom nearly a century later. According to news coverage in the Post Bulletin, Lawler's car stopped when heavy rain began to fall and water ran across the road. Fearing rocks and debris would fall, Alma Lawler asked the driver of the second car to push her vehicle out of harm's way.
However, in a matter of moments, the torrent of water turned the Lawler car into an island. The water rose so fast that the two women in the second car were waist-deep in the water as they escaped from their car to higher ground.
"When I turned around, I saw a sudden avalanche of dirt, rocks and trees washed away by a wall of water rushing into Ms. Lawler's car," one of the women told the Post Bulletin. "They were gone. Like a rubber ball, they were swept away. It was a terrible sight. "
The rushing water had run down two ravines to form a powerful current that struck the car with "terrible force," according to witnesses. "The car was instantly engulfed in water and pushed away by the raging torrent."
Ethel Dodge's body was found nearby. The search for the bodies of Alma and Betty Jane Lawler continued through the night. Dozens of volunteers, including the Boy Scouts of Rochester, were ready to join the search the next morning. Then came news that the bodies had been found near a stream that empties into the Mississippi River. They had been carried five miles by the torrent of water.
The car was found lodged against a gutter and embedded in mud and debris. Water carried away by the car had spilled through what was normally a dry ditch, the Post Bulletin reported.
The storm was part of a violent weather system, including tornadoes that destroyed farm buildings near Austin and Winona, and downed trees and power lines near Zumbro Falls.
That same day, the US Census Bureau announced that the 1930 count had found the population of Rochester to be 20,614, making it the fastest growing city in Minnesota. But it was still in many ways a small town, where everyone seemed to know everyone else, which meant that the dire circumstances of the deaths of Alma and Betty Jane Lawler and Ethel Dodge would affect many residents of the city.
Thomas Weber is a former Post Bulletin reporter who enjoys writing about local history.
