The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-04-05
That Many are Known to Have
Perished
BY the Breaking of the LeVee
at ShaWneetOwn.
LIST MAY REACH 100
1t is Believed When the Search
is Begun.
Damage to Property Estimated
at 100000.

RfdgeWay, ILL.,, April 5.-Following is
the list of those known to have lost
their lives in the Shawneetown dis
aster:
Colonel Calicott.
Wash Calicott and wife.
Mrs. G. R. Galloway and two daugh-
tiers.
Mrs. Holly.
Mrs. Greer
Mrs. Ed. Flake
Charles Clayton and family of six.
Anna Reinhold.
c. Rinchon.
Paul Phalen and family of three
Mrs. McClair.
Zachary Meir.
Mrs. Webb and three children.
A family of seven, unknown.
Ellen McAllister (colored..
Mary McAlliSter (cOlored).
The gap is over 100 feet wide to-day
in the leVee at Shawneetown, and grad
ualy widening. The water is from 10
to Is feet deep all over the town. With
the continued cold rains, and the loss
little abated.
1t is known from 40 to so people have
lost their lives. None of the bodies
have been recovered. Every store in
can be had only as they are sent from
surrounding towns. Relief committees
are doing all in their power to provide
for the wants of the people. Clothing
conceivable way, on trains, boats and
skiffs, canoes and dugouts. The pro-
visions are cooked ready to be served
on arrival, as there is but little if any
chance to do any cooking, stoves and
kitchen utensils being practically under
water and fuel a scarce article.
The people will not suffer for food or
raiment, however, Notwithstanding
Those in the doomed city are being well
cared for. There is much anxiety on
the part of many who have friends in
the flood. The levee is in a precarious
condition las it is being undermined in
several places 1t is thought by con-
sentative people that the loss of life
will reach 100 That number alone is
missing and unaccOunted for, while it
is known that As or so have persisted.
The property loss, to say nothing of the
damage to the levee and crops, will
reach over 100000. Property in two
utterly ruined, and the damage to
goods is enormous.
Up to noon to-day no new names
have been added to the list of drowned
to-day that during the excitement Sun
day afternoon just after the dyke
broke he saw a farmer with his wife
and two children in a wagon fur1OuSly
driving through the street in front of
the court house. The farmer evidently
became confused for he dashed his
horses squarely into the current from
the crevasse, and the next moment the
vehicle was overturned, and the family
disappeared The witness does not
know the occupants of the wagon, and
their names can not be learned.
Noah Welsh, the proprietor of a
brick factory at Shawneetown, has
gathered rs people at his factory and 35
at his house, both buildings being stu
ated above the water line on the hill.
These $50 people saved absolutely moth
ing but the clothing they wore. They
were without food all day yesterday,
Mr. Welsh having exhausted all that he
had at home. The relief committee
hurried food to them to-day as fast as
it was received.
County Treasurer Sanks related his
experience as follows: 81 was sitting
in my home talking with Mrs. GoetZ-
man, a neighbor who had called about
half past 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon,
when suddenly the bells began ringing.
Mrs. Goetzman jumped up and cried:
I believe the 1evee is broken I rushed
outdoors and found Mrs. Lee Howell
living on the sidewalk in front of, my
door, where she had tainted from
fright I carried her home, block
away, and came back to tell my family
to move upstairs at once. Then I ran
to the court house, block distant, to
get my county treaSurer'S records. 1t
took me about 10 minutes to gather
them up and rush back home. My
house was almost a mile away from the
leyee, but by the time I got there I
could see the water coming. l found
my family up stairs all safe and in half
an hour the water was up to the see
ond floor We were all taken out by
boats"