Memorial to a Flood . . .

Almost Forgotten

By John. H. Gwathmey

Virginia has a monument, unique so far as is known, in that it is erected to a flood. It stands on high ground in the deep woods on the old Turkey Island estate, ancestral seat of the Randolph family, in the lower end of Henrico County.

The inscription tells the tale:

THE FOUNDATION
OF THIS PILLAR WAS LAID
IN THE CALAMITOUS YEAR
1771
WHEN ALL THE GREAT
RIVERS OF THIS COUNTRY
WERE SWEPT BY
INUNDATIONS NEVER
BEFORE EXPERIENCED
WHICH CHANGED THE
FACE OF NATURE AND
LEFT TRACES OF THEIR
VIOLENCE THAT WILL
REMAIN FOR AGES

On another side is the following inscription, apparently carved there the following year and as an afterthought:

IN THE YEAR 1772
THIS MONUMENT WAS
RAISED TO THE MEMORY
OF THE FIRST
RICHARD AND JANE
RANDOLPH
OF CURLS
BY THEIR THIRD SON
TO WHOSE PARENTAL
AFFECTION, INDUSTRY
AND ECONOMY
HE WAS INDEBTED
FOR THEIR TENDERNESS
IN INFANCY, A GOOD
EDUCATION IN YOUTH
AND AMPLE FORTUNE
IN MATURE AGE

John Randolph of Roanoke, in his manuscript diary, refers briefly to it as having been erected by his Uncle Ryland Randolph. That the flood was of considerable magnitude is attested by the fact that the House of Burgesses, in session at Williamsburg, took steps to recompense the planters for tobacco lost in the public warehouses.

The monument is of brick, faced with cement, and is 18 feet high and six feet square at the base. A substantial iron fence which encloses it was apparently placed there later.

Old writings reveal that this flood was at its worst on May 27, 1771, and that it was particularly "calamitous" in that residents of the river plantations had little warning. Torrential rains fell on the upper reaches of the rivers when there was not a cloud in the sky along the Lower James.