Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1892 — RECORD OF FOUR FLOODS. [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF FOUR FLOODS.

High Hater of Tfils Season Compared with That pt 1*44, I£sl and 1858. As the presmt flood in the Mississippi appears to have reached 4ts culmination —unless it should receive accession from the usual June rise in the Missouri—some account of the record of previous floods in the same stream may be of interest. There have been three previous floods since the settlement of the country, which are well remembered by persons now living, and in which the rise reached about the same point as the present. These were in 1844, 1851 and 1858, and the limit above the low-water mark at 6t. Louis in those years was as follows: 1844 41.9 fe5t!858............30.9 feet 18S1 39.5 feet| 1892 36 feet It will be seen from these figures that the flood of 1892 has not reached a point equal to those of 1851 and 1858, though within a fraction of each, but still falls short of each by several inches, and of that of 1844 by nearly six feet. The present flood has been sufficient to cover about the same area ih Illinois as the previous ones, in spite of the increased height and strength of levees, except at East St. Louis, where the levee construction has been effective in protecting a portion of the town. Owing to the vastly increased area under cultivation, both on the Mississippi and Missouri, the loss from the destruction of crops and the carrying away of houses and other property will be greatly increased over that of former years.

The statistics given show that the flood of 1844 is entitled to rank as the most memorable as to height. Like all the others, it was the result of a long succession of spring rains followed by an unexampled June rise in the Missouri caused by the melting of heavy snows in the Rocky Mountains. Previous to this date little if any progress had been made in the construction of the leVee system above the mouth of the Ohio, and consequently the stream was not confined to a comparatively narrow channel as now. As a consequence, after it began to overflow its banks a greater volume of water was required to cause a moderate rise at St. Louis, where the river, by overflowing the American Bottom, spread to a width of eight to ten miles. Yet it then reached a height of nearly forty-seven feet above low water, covering the whole of what is called “The Levee" or Front street, where now the lower railroad bridge crosses the river, and flooding the business houses on that street to a depth of several feet. As the city has since been extended to the bottom lands, both above and below the old city, some idea may be formed of the increase of the area exposed to the ravages of the present floods. The Whole of the “American Bottom” opposite St. Louis, extending from Alton to Chester, and covering an area of one to ten miles wide by ninety miles in length, was completely submerged with the exception of a few mounds and ridges, so that steamboats reached the Illinois bluffs from eight to ten miles from St. Louis. It has since become one of the most highly cultivated and productive sections of the State, and the loss in the destruction of some crops and in delaying the planting of others, to say nothing of other property, is almost incalculable.

Of course all these floods, with others which occurred at later periods, inflicted immense damage upon the lower Mississippi, where the levee system was not as complete as it is now. A flood in 1882 devasted nearly 600,000 acres in the States of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana and compelled the furnishing of rations by the Government to 130,000 homeless people, with tents for sheltering large numbers. The loss in Louisiana alone was estimated at $2,000,000. Another flood in February and March, 1890, which was chiefly confined to the lower Mississippi, coming from the Arkansas and Bed Bivers, was also very disastrous. The number of “crevasses” (breaks in levees) during the present flood has been very great, and heavy loss is inevitable. Floods in 1876 and 1880 caused heavy loss to the farmers on bottom lands in Illinois between Warsaw and Quincy, and between Quincy and the mouth of the Illinois, in consequence of the breaking of newly construc’ted levees, which protected a large area of recently reclaimed farming lands. There were a few losses of life, many narrow escapes, and the destruction of growing crops was almost complete. The rise at Quincy in 1851 was 22.8 feet, in 1876 19 feet, and in 1880 17 feet. So far this region has escaped serious disaster, but the Des Moines River has burst its bounds near its mouth and wrought havoc among the rich farms in the rear of Alexandria, 111. Doubtless the most memorable and disastrous floods in this country have been those occurring in the Ohio, usually at the time of some sudden breaking up of the ice in the winter or early spring. The following are the limits above low water reached in Cincinnati in different years: 1834, 64 feet 4 inches; 1847, 63 feet 7 inches; 1862, 57 feet 4 Inches; 1882, 58 feet 7 inches, and 1883 (the highest ever known), 66 feet 4 inches. The latter destroyed a number of lives, millions of property and devastated several prominent cities, Shawneetown, 111., being among the number.