HUNT, Texas – A nearly century-old piece of history is fueling hope for a Hunt flood survivor.
“These were files that my mother and my grandfather had kept for me to see someday,” said Pam Nelson Harte, as she held worn documents with edges covered in dried mud.
Ironically, the papers swept away were written after another tragic flood.
“This is a file about the 1932 flood that happened here on the south fork (of the Guadalupe River), and it talks about the camps (that) were here at the time, including Camp Mystic, and what they went through,” Harte said.
One of the papers Harte discovered is called the “Song of the Guadalupe,” with lyrics written originally in German.
Another document showed that in 1972, Harte’s grandfather asked the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio to translate the song into English.
“And here it is in English,” Harte said.
She held up the third page, which showed the full translated song.
“In the valley of the Guadalupe
Lives no prince, no nobleman,
No one knows of feudalism,
Tithing and payment for justice;
No rules and no spells.
In the valley of the Guadalupe
There is no master or servant.
No one becomes the victim of malevolence.
We are all free people;
With a law; with a right.
In the valley of the Guadalupe
A policeman never asks me
What I think, or what I write,
If I do this, or if I do that,
Or if I am a good Christian.
In the valley of the Guadalupe
I am not bothered by memory
Of Knights, or of Squires,
Lords, torture, helmet and coats of arms.
Here everything is young and fresh
In the valley of the Guadalupe
Here I live a happy life,
Feeling with every deep breath,
Like a flying noble hawk,
That I am free and happy."
After Harte read it aloud, she paused in a moment of reflection.
When asked how it makes her feel to read the song, she said,
“It tells me that if they recovered in 1932, which was a difficult flood, people were lost at that time, too,” Harte said. “If they recover from that, we can recover — almost 100 years later. It gives me hope. It’s possible.”
The incredible, healing discovery is not the only buried treasure bringing Harte hope.
“So this file ended up in the river. The original land grant for this property, January 4, 1892, filed November 22, 1904, when the governor was J.S. Hogg,” Harte said, thumbing through the 133-year-old document.
As she uncovered her family’s history one muddy page at a time, volunteers from across the country dug through the mud in her yard. They found jewelry the river had hurled out of her home on the Fourth of July.
After losing her neighbors, homes and belongings to the flood, Harte said she is turning to a 93-year-old message of strength and gratitude.
Harte was also the subject of a previous KSAT story, where she was reunited with her lost scrapbook that was swept away in the flood. Her friends saw the album on national news and KSAT was able to help her get it back.
More recent Hill Country floods coverage on KSAT: