Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1851-07-31
INDIANA STATE SENTINEL.
Mississippi Floods.
RON 'sHrs- oRrcAL sKKTtHEs," BY REV. ,. ". PECK

auette first wrote it, furnishes occasion for some
historical sketches of former floods.
While De Soto and his party were at an Indian
village, on the western side of the "Rio Grande, as
the Spanards called the river, which, from ITS ele
waited positions indicates the site of Helena, IN Ar
kansas, In March 1912, there was rise In the river
so as TO cover all the surrounding country far as
the eye could reach. In the village, represented 10
have been on high ground, the water rose from i've
to six feet above the earth, the only place oil
shelter was the lofts of their cabins. Both the In
dams and Spaniards went in canoes from house to
house II remained at this height for several days,
and then subsidized rapidly. The historian does not
inform us where their horses found footing and sub
sistence of which they had about three hundred
that survived the flood.
The earliest authentic account of the American
Bottom being submerged is in 1924. document is
10 be found in the archives of kaskaskia, which con-
SiSts of petition TO the Crown of France, In IT'D,
for grant of land, in which the damage sustained
the preceding year, (724) by the rise Of the water
is mentioned The villagers were driven othe Bluffs
on the opposite side of the Kaskaskia river; their
gardens and corn fields destroyed, and their
buildings and property much injured. We have no
evidence of its height, but the whole American Bot
tom was submerged This was probably in June.
There was a tradition among the old French
people, thirty years since, that there was an eNtraor
binary rise OF The river between l740 and 1900, but
/ find no written printed account oft
In the year I772 another flood came and portions
Charities, in 1855, stood half mile from the Mis-
siSsppi river; Capt. Pittman who surveyed the Fort
In 1868, states:
"The bank of the Mississippi, next the Fort, is
continually falling in being worn away by the cur
rent. which has been turned from its course by
sand bank, now increased to a considerable iSland
covered with willows. Many experiments have been
tried to stop this growing evil, but to no purpose.
Eighty years ago the river was fordable to the
island; the channel is forty feet deep"
About the year 1770 the river made further en-
croachments but in l772, when it inundated portions
of the American Bottom, il swept away the land 10
the Fort, and undermined the wall on that side,
which tumbled into the river. A large and heavily
timbered island occupies the ''sandbar" OF
Capt. PittmanS time, between which and the site OF
the Fort slough runs.
The next period of extreme high water was in
1875, during which Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and large
portions of the American Bottom were submerged
The late Gen. Edgar informed the writer, that In
Kaskaskia the water to the surface OF the door
sill of The house of the late Robert Morrison ESQ.,
but that in one place where the Court House stood
few years since, the ground was above the water
That season the inhabitants passed by means OF water
craft though the prairies and lakes from Cahokia to
KaskaSkia. This flood destroyed all the C ops, and
did much damage about the French villages on the
American Bottom.
There were high waters so as TO overflow The low
grounds, and fill the lakes and soughS on the Ameri-
can bottoms at other seasons, subsequently, but none
that deserve attention in this sketch until that of 1871
which is in the memory of many of the inhabitants
now living. 1t in the summer preceding the
Shakes as the earthquakes called.
This flood was in part from the annual rise OF the
Missouri, as the preceding ones noticed, which
is not the case with the present high water. The
flood in the Missouri always occurs between the 18th
and Both of June, and is caused by the SHOWS melt
ing In the mountains at the heads of main Missouri
In some seasons the Yellow Stone, which is in
more Southern latitude, pours out flood which
reaches St. Louis about the last of May or the first
of June The present rise of water in both the Mis-
souri, and Mississippi appears to be caused by unu-
sua rains in the North, while in this latitude it has
been unusually dry.
The rise in ISL spread over the low grounds of
the American Bottom, and covered the cornhelds at
tached to the French villages. The common fields,
belonging to St. Genneyieve, were on the bottom
land adjacent 10 the river much of which has since
been swept away, and the steamboats, run now over
the same spot. The water entirely submerged the
field and nearly covered the growing corn. Father
Maxwell, the priest as some of the inhabitants OF
St. Genevieye narrated the story more than thirty
years since was waited on by the panic-striken in
habitantS to spray away the water" He gave no
direct encouragement at first until he perceived the
water at stand when he proposed to the corn-grOw
ers to drive off the waters by saying Masses for
share of all the corn they raised. The bargain was
struck, the masses were said, and TO the faith and
astonishment of the owners the waters suddenly
fired from their fields. The ground soon dry,
the corn looked green, and the priest shared in the
luXuriant crop. The American settlers were such
heretics to think the waters would have subsidized,
and the corn have grown without the masses of Pere
Maxwell, who would play all sorts of tricks
and turn up trump for himself
That season proved very sickly one throughout
the country.
In 1924, which was an unusually rainy from
April to the last of June, the river overlooked its
banks opposite st. Louis and in the lower room
in the old store at the foot of Oak street, Chen kept
by Mr.. John Shacklord) five feet. 1t overlooked all
the low grounds about Illinoistown The next rise
was of the same height, in 1926. Many of the citi-
zenS of ST. Louis viii recolIect when the East bank
Of the river opposite Oak street where the Island
is, which farther up the river and nearer the
ST. Louis shore. There was village OF some twenty
small houses at and above where the dixie Joins the
Island, and ferry of the French fashion, 1.-TWO ca
noes with light platform over them, crossed the
river from the village TO the foot of Oak street. Let
any look from that street. the river, and
he Will see ii is yards above the dixie. AT least
one third of the width of the river on the Eastern
side has been swept away since 1920. Ii is the gen
sral law of the Missouri and the Mississippi that the
more confined is the water, the deeper will it exca-
Fate its own channel and the less danger is there of
is OVERLOOKING the adjacent bottoms And the
banks widened and bars form in the channel and
N the time of food, the surface water is raised in
proportion and the banks overiown The great
hood Of 1914 is recent that notice Of il is nee
eSsary in this article.
GIVE YOUR CHILD A NEwsPAPER.-A child
beginning to read becomes delighted with a newspa-
per- because he reads the names of things which
very familiar, and will make him progress accord
ngly. A newspaper in one year is worth quarters
schooling TO child, and every father must consider
hat substantial information is connected with adj 1
The mother Of family, being of
Is heads, and having more immediate charge of