Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-05-26
THE GREAT FLOOD.
The Losses in the Mississippi Val
ley Are Immense.
Hundreds Reduced to Poverty-A Great
Opportunity for the CharitabIe-Sad
Scenes of DesolatiOn in the
Inundated Districts
IN NEED OF AID.

proclamation calling upon the people
of Illinois generally to contribute TO
the relief of sufferers by flood in
that state Thousands of such
sufferers, including $50 at Belle
not only in need of assistance for the
present, but will in numerous cases be
dependent upon others for weeks to
come, owing to loss of crops and homes
and in some instances the loss of
their farming land, which was swept
away by the flood. Gov. Fifer will inn
mediately obtain a census of the suf-
ferers in each county where they have
taken refuge, in order to determine the
exact number of persons who will be
burdens upon the various communities
for some time to come and to form
systematic plan of relief in which the
people throughout Illinois will probably
be asked to cooperate
The Mississippi and Missouri valleys
present melancholy picture of ruin
and devastation. For a distance of IS
miles above and below here the valley,
to width of from to Is miles, is one
vast waste of muddy water. On every
hand the roofs and upper stories of
farmhouses stand as melancholy land
marks of what were once prosperous
farmers houses. Fences, barns and
haystacks are gone, and the patient
work OF years has been destroyed in a
single week.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of
well-tilled farms, two weeks ago rich
in waving grain, are now under 10 feet
of water or piled high with mud
and driftwood. Their owners or ten
ants, driven to the upper stories of their
farmhouses by the flood, were prison
ers there without food to eat or fires to
keep them warm, and did not dare
close their eyes in sleep.
ALTON, H., May 23.-For the last
seven days the relief committee has
abored increasingly. It's members
dropped their business and gave them
selves up to the work of the rescue.
1t is impossible to estimate even the
immediate loss, but the most serious
phase of the trouble is not so much the
actual loss to the growing crop as the
fact that the distressed farmers, with
out cent ahead in the world and with
no credit, will have to be supported by
public benevolence until next years
crop is harvested, and many of them
are ruined forever and will need gem
erous help to place them on their feet
again
Missouri point, strip Is miles long
by wide, on the Missouri side, be-
tween the two rivers, is completely sub
merged. The great American bottoms,
which extend for 80 miles south of here
on the Illinois bank and have a width
varying from l to 10 miles, are under
2 feet of water. This strip of land was
famous for its fertility and almost
every available foot of it was under
cultivation. Four miles northwest of
here, at Portage, the Missouri has cut
an immense channel into the Missis-
sippi, and fears are entertained that
this may be permanent Another chan
mel has been washed through a half
mile below here.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, May 24-Pemiscot
county has been almost depopulated.
Three-fourths of the county is now
needed at several points in the
county between Reelfoot Lake and
Paragould on the Arkansas side.
There were three families drowned
there last Friday. Their names are:
Wash. Hall, wife and three chill
dren; Joseph Mallory, wife and two
children; Samuel Moore (colored), wife
and daughter. Halls wife was caught
on a tree and was rescued by a hunter.
She lived only an hour.
The Arkansas bottoms are all under
water and the number of lives lost and
property destroyed cannot be estimated,
because no boats have gone into the
flooded districts and nothing definite
has been learned from there.
The flood situation between Cairo
and Memphis is more serious than be-
tween Cairo and St Louis, because
there is a greater acreage covered by
water and more farms ruined. Every
steamer passing Island No. 10 and
Island No. 81 is hailed and takes
on families that have been rem
dered homeless. 1t is estimated
that 300 horses and mules and 1000
head of cattle have been drowned and
that 700, 600 acres of cultivated farms
are under water, which OF course means
that the crops along the Mississippi
valley are totally destroyed. According
to Capt. Howard, of the Anchor line,
there are 225, 900 acres of wheat de-
stroye6, 500, 900 acres of corn ruined
and nearly zoo, 900 acres Of cotton mum
dated In many places an inch more
of water would mean total destruction
to hundreds Of farms that are now safe.
but the waters continue to rise, and in
two days more it is expected that l.
600. 600 acres of cultivated ground will
be flooded.
WAsH1xeToS, May ~. r The presi-
dent has received the following tele-
gram:
SHREVEPORT La, May 2e.-The President
OF the United States, Washington There Is