The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-13
DISASTROUS FLOOD IN THE WEST.

TennesBee Valleys Inundated-HOuses,
Barns, Bridges, and Lumber Washed
AwRy-SJOclE Drowned and Farms Dc
Vastated - Sc 100000 Worth of Pro-
perty Destroyed.
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee March 12.-The most
disastrous food ever experienced visited this
county last week. Seven days' incessant rain.
ing sWelled the mountain streams ntil the val
leys became one vast ryeI-bed. The Holstein
river, from its head-wa er5 in West Virginia to
the mouth, was higher than ever before known;
at some points it was over City feet deep. The
damages in East Tennessee alone will reach
So, 900. Twenty-three houses we're washed
away along the river bank at this point.
The Casper * Davis sash and blind factory
lost their building all their material, machinery,
etc. John Coker, lumberman, lost some three
thousand feet of lumber. The county bridge,
built by General Burnside during the siege of
Knoxville, was washed away. The bridges over
First Greek, connecting East and West Knox
vile, were all impossible. The gas works were
aDhsubmerIed. Over one hundred persons were
washed out OF their houses The towns along
the Holstein and Tennessee rivers all suffered
severely. cambridge, Lenoirs, Loudon and
Kingston were all partly submerged.
Whole houses were swept down the river,
filled with household food and supplies. The
farmers living near the French Broad and
Holstein rivers lost everything they had.
Houses, barns, and fences were washed away,
and the stock all drowned. Great numbers of
wealthy farmers are lett with nothing but their
covered with sediment. One farmer living on
an island in the French Broad had his houses
and barns washed away, his corn and cribs
swept Oft, and all his stock save two horses
drowned. He carried his family of in boat,
and they are lett perfectly destitute.
Mr.. Meredith, living on the Holsein, near
Bristol, lost flour mill and q foundry, his
house, and all his stock; loss over $4,000.
Vast quantities OF corn had been gathered and
stored on the river bank waiting for high
water All this corn, thousands of bushels, on
the Clinch, Holstein, and French Broad rivers,
was swept away. Mr.. Fain lost 1000 bushels in
one lot. II is estimated that over 100, 900
bushels of corn were lost in this way. Thou
sands of bushels are now covering the bottoms,
buried in the mud.
The railroads all lost heavily. The East Ten.
nessee and Virginia Railroads.&c. three spans of
the new bridge at Strawberry Plains-loss
$4,000. The same road lost the bridge over
Flat Creek-loss $4,000. The Knoxville and
Kingston Railroad had heavy slide at Copper
Ridge. The East Tennessee and Georgia Rail-
road lost bridges near Chattanooga. These
roads will all be in running order in ten days.
The water in the rivers was twelve feet higher
than in the flood OF lS47,
This food extended all through West Virginia
and Tennessee, and was the most damaging
ever known. The streams are still high and
hundreds of families are encamped ongthe hill
Sides Great suffering must follow, as large
families are left without houses or supplies.
Chattanooga was all submerged: the water
reached the second story of the business
houses: loss immense.