Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1896 — FLOODS BRING RUIN. [ARTICLE]

FLOODS BRING RUIN.

Damage Amounting to Over $2,000,000 Already Done. To the farmers who live along the banks of the Osage River in Central Missouri Christmas brought only woe and gloom. The unprecedented rise in the river of thirty-five feet in three days has devastated that section, and many farmers have lost everything they possessed. Some of them had their corn in shocks, others in cribs. The flood has taken all that lay in the low lands. Not only have many farmers lost their crops, but their stock and buildings as well. The Osage valley is a desolate waste, and the damage will reach at least $2,000,000. Lee Thomsberry, living between Bagnell and Tuscumbia, lost fifty-seven head of good 3-year-old steers, and Hugh White, who lives near the mouth of an Osage River tributary, lost everything but his life and his family. Hundreds of others have lost their hay, corn and some stock. At Bagnell, the end of the Lebanon branch of the Missouri Pacific Road, the river is three miles wide, and no train has been able to get within a mile and a half of the town for four days. That town and Eldon are shut off entirely from telegraphic communication with the outside world. The large business house of Hawley & Franklin is filled with water and their stock of goods is greatly dainaged. At Tuscumbia, the county seat of Miller, a terrible condition exists. Nearly the entire town is under water. Only the roofs of many buildings, the pbstoffice among them, can be seen. A large flouring mill, the printing office and several small stores and residences are entirely submerged. Twenty cars loaded with railroad ties are standing on side tracks at Bagnell, and there are thousands of ties floating about in the river and backwater. The river is higher even than during the famous flood of 1844. The suffering of the people whose land and property have been devastated will undoubtedly be terrible this winter.