The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1874-05-01
OVERFLOW PETHE oUAcHITA.
.xuEHOREBLE Event.
s.ra.s. sish..-areat Destruction.

Wx1tV0n OK UHWF1ttSfa Hk3toES "a 1A'S
section. When we stated, two weeks
ago, that the year 1874 would be mem
orahle, for .half-a-csntury, for high
waters, we little expected the food
would be so great or disastrous; and
when, now, we come to chronicle the
extent Of the overflow and of the des-
truction, we are simply lost in a wilder
ness of water, Incidents of the flood and
afi1ictions Of the people, and know not
where to begin, what to says, or where
to end. We have no precedents to be
guided by, no standard of losses or OF
floods that will convey an idea to the
distant reader, who ever saw this coun-
try. of the extent of the ruin brought
upon the Ouachita Valley by the late
overflow. And while we are impressed
thus with its extent, we must confess,
that, with all our efforts to procure In
formation from the swamp country
around the small island upon which
this city now stands-about two and
a-half miles long by half mile wide
we know almost nothing of the damage
done beyond this little island. People
who came almost daily on horseback to
town for years and years, have not been
able to get to Monroe, except in boats
and by hard rowing at that for over ten
days. Our nearest neignbors have be-
come strangers. A man living on the
DeSiard below Pargoud's place,or west
of Trenton, is seen but rarely, or not at
all, and his reports of the water fly
through town with the swiftness of in
telligence in a city beseiged. We have
no record of the date of the highest
water, but it must have been at some
such time as this that the aborigines
selected the present site OF Monroe as
the higest ground to be 'und on the
Ouachita. The coolest inh bitant" has
no longer any recollections of high
water, except such as I'VE us in doubt
whether, or not, he er lived. We
may pass in review successfully the
overflows of 1923, 1914 and on up to
1871, and there lives no old inhabitant
who ever saw or heard of an overflow
like the one of 1874.
To give correct description Of what
our people have passed through, is i'm
possible. Our highest land, it is true,
has not been under water, but it would
require the aid of the photographers
art to tell what has not.
The river, this season, was late in
rising, and the cisterns had but little
water In them even in February. The
gardens and fields were we'll advanced.
The Fall and Winter We're unusually
dry. In March the rains came. Grad
ually the river began to rise, and kept
rising, until two weeks ago, the water
in the channel was above that of 1871.
Heavy rains followed: Then it was
considered necessary to watch the
levees at Pargoud's places above Mon
roe and below, and at Morrison's.
Work on the plantations was suspended.
The city authorities called for hands to
work on the upper Pargoud levee, and
had sand bags made and filled and
plank placed on the levec. Morrison's
levee, miles below, gave way, sub
merging his place and turning over
some of his cabins. This break brought
no relief to Monroe. On Saturday, the
10th, the water began to run over Par
goud's upper levec. 1t poured down
through the fields below, into Houng's
bayou, the eastern boundary of the
city, and soon filled up the bayou to the
Iafourche, where it met tho water from
the Mississippi overflow, and then it
began to overflow the colorcd people
who lived along Young's bayou. Sun
day morning following, these people
commenced moving into town. The
river continuing to rise and the over
flow to spread-the levee at Pargoud's
lower place giving way meanwhile and
the waters meeting so as to swell the
food back of town--therc was Il rapid
rise in rear, which brought the water
nearly to Monroe Cemetery on Mon
day.
Meantime, there We're heavy rains
here and above. The river continued