Creating Fiction from History: 12/22/2021

At 102 (103 February next) Granny Hotchkins, as everyone back home called her, not only looked really good for her exalted age; she was also, without doubt, the oldest person to ever dare The Falls in a barrel!

Coming from the small mid-west township of Ludlow, Iowa, just five miles from neighboring Waukon, Granny was fairly famous in her little hometown for her herbal remedies and botanical medicines.

In 1872, less than a decade after Lee officially surrendered to future president Ulysses Grant, signalling the end of what is popularly called The Civil War, small townships like Ludlow were fairly prolific in the Midwest. Even though a traveling physician made his rounds every month or two, depending on weather, Ludlow was indeed blessed to have such a healer as old Granny Hotchkins.

Delilah Hotchkins (AKA Granny) on the occasion of her 100th birthday, began to make plans to travel to Niagara Falls, halfway across a nation that was still recovering from a costly war. She planned to do what no one before her had ever done. To be honest, Granny had not planned to go over the falls, only to skirt them, but when her train was approaching its destination; she decided then and there to take the leap.

The photograph was taken about a decade or so before the little village became known as Bellevue.