The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-07-27
Unprecedented Overflow Of Rivers In Ala
bHma-.Plantations Destroyed
Wholesale.
lOrrville (l3th) Cor. Selma Times.

cessation at present. Creeks and streams
overtiowing their banks, sweeping over
and apparently running the corn and
cotton on all sWamps and low lands.
Crops that u few days ago, looked as
fine rs were ever seen at this season Of
the year, now lie dragging in mud and
water.
Farmers who were delighted with
their prospects, imagining that they
could almost feel the money jingling
in their pocket, now go about and
look AS sadly AS if dearest friend had
departed. Truly the farmer has ga
hard road to travel' these latter days.
The officers of the steamer Emma
No. =, arrived at Mobile from We
tunpla, report the crops along the
banks of the Alabama River general
ly submerged by the overflow.
ISelma Times 9lth.l
We understand that there is not an
acre of Mr.. Thos. w. Williams planta-
tion Oh the Caf,aba River, about six
miles from the city, but what il un-
der water. He has 800 hundred acres
of cotton submerged.
The immense amount of driftWOOd
bearing against the Tombigbee bridge
of the Alabama Central Railroad has
all floated down the river, we learn
from a private telegram, but the water
is still rising. No fears are now enter
tanned as to the safety ofthe bridge.
The Calaba River has fallen thirty
inches. The laborers who went out on
the Alabama Central Railroad yester-
day, were unable to do anything in the
way of repairing the trestles, etc, on
account of the high water. No trains
will leave the city on the above mem
toned road to-day.
The Oldest inflabitant has never seen
the like himself, nor has he ever seen
the man who has. Tho Alabama River
is higher here now than ever before in
the summer. 1t lacks but little of be-
ing as high rs it was in the winter of
1888 and in the Spring of 1865, the high
est freshets ever known. The amount
of damage done exceeds the combined
freshets of half century in tho same
section. There is no estimating the
damages in dollars and cents. Whole
plantations are destroyed in this Sec
acres of the most promising crops, ten
days ago, are now submerged under
the flood. The Alabama is out of its
banks at all places; the crecksare over
flowing the low lands for miles and
miles from the river by "back water;"
while the incess,lnt and heavy rains
have washed up and damaged the up
lands to an incalculablc extent. Men,
who Il few days since had the promise
of the best crop in years, are to-day
literally Impoverished. Planters who
had worked hard in order to get out
of debt, and who had the promise of Il
yield II few day ago, to-day
see that their labor has 'gOnc naught,"
and that the capitol that they have in
vested has been money thrown away.
1t is indeed 8: sad reality; and, unfortu-
natcly, it is not confined to any ono
place i'm this section of the State. The
news that comes to us daily from the
western portion OF the State is terrible.
Two young men arrived here yester-
day, four days out from Greensboro,
who crossed the Cahaba River yester-
day morning in Il skiHi, il being then
over ten miles wide. The news from
north Georgia, north Alabama and
is Of the same charac-
ter.
[Tuscaloosa Times, l7th.l
Several days ago, the Warrior River,
which had been down for many weeks,
at low water mark, began to rise, yes
tertlay morning, when it became sta
it had risen siXty-two feet and,
six inches at our wharf.
Such a freshet, Mt this season of the
year, is without precedent in the MEM
ory of the oldest inhabitant, or in the
history of the country, since the year
1919, when, as tradition tells, n similar
rise in the Warrior occurred.
The flood of waters soon OverfiOwcd
the river banks an inundated the bot
toms for miles on both sides of the
main channel. In consequence, the
growing crops of corn and cotton have
been entirely submerged, the water
rising to the depth of forty or fifty feet
over many Of the finest plantation.
The loss which has thus been inflicted
upon the planting interest of the coIn-
ty is immense. Some idea of the ma
ture and extent of the loss may be in
ferrcd from the following facts The
Warrior River, pursuing n somewhat
sinuous course south of the city, runs
n distance of about fifty miles to its
point of exit, from this county of
Greene. The alluvial bottoms, lying
on both sides of it, have an average ag-
gregatc breadth Of about three miles,
are extremely fertile, and are mostly
under cultivation. The crops Of the
present year, both corn and cotton,
growing upon these river plantations
We're all in good condition, We're gener.