The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-06
No Food or Clothing Except What
Has Been Sent by Relief Parties
The Flood Receding.

i,
age.
ANNIE REINHOLT, ten years of age.
CHARLES CLAYTON, sr.
MRS CHARLES CLAYTON.
GERTRUDE CLAYTON, seven years of
age.
JESSIE CLAYTON, nine years of age
MYRTLE CLAYTON. eleven years of
age.
GRANT CLAYTON, eight years of age
NOAH WEIGH.
MRS. NOAH WEIGH.
MRS CHARLOTTA HOLLY.
WASH CALLICOTT
MRS WASH CALLICOTT.
JOHN A CALLICOTT, brother of Wash
Callicott.
MRS. RILEY GALLOWAY.
MISS DORA GALLOWAY.
MISS MARION GALLOWAY.
MRS. PAUL PHELAN.
MISS MINNIE PHELAN.
There is a possibility that the number of
dead may exceed the list by small margin.
There is, however, no good ground for be-
lieving that others than those mentioned
were lost save the statement of several ma
tives of Shawneetown that they saw many
people drowning. There is no danger of
further damage to the town unless more
storms should set in and even then it is
difficult to see how matters can be made
worse than they are now. The entire town
is buried under ten to fifteen feet of water
with the exception of the houses on the
embankment, Immediately fronting the
Ohio river. All of these have water in the
cellar and most of them are flooded to the
second story.
The water began to fall to-day and by
o'clock this afternoon had receded eight
feet from the highest mark of Wednesday,
The high north wind was driving the waves
before 1t and if no more rains come it is
probable that the town will be dry within
ten days or two weeks. Not a single body
has been recovered yet and there is no.
probability that any will be found until
after the waters have entirely subsidized.
The levee broke on the north side of the
town, sweeping what is known as the First,
Second and Third wards clean of all build
ings. All of the people who were drowned
met their fate in the First and northern part
of the Second ward, which was nearest
to the break, the First bordering directly
on the dixie which gave way. There is a
large semi-circe dixie to the south of the
town. inclosing it on that side as the brok-
en- dixie incosed it on the north. Down the
edge of this dixie and in town proper is q
tangled mass of tree shrubs and brush
wood. Into the curve formed by the south
ern dixie bodies were carried by the flood
and all of them are supposed to be scat
tered along the southern bank, which is
nearly a mile in extent from the western
end of the curve to the eastern end No
attempt will be made to find the bodies
unless they should come to the surface I'M
til the water has entirely gone down.
The wall of water which swept through
the town when the dixie broke was not over
four feet high. 1t rushed in with such vio-
lence however, that all people who were
caught waist deep in the stream were
hurled together and smotheced before they
could rise. AS an example of the speed
with which the flood came, it may be mem
toned that Mrs. Charles Pillow had Just
removed her dress for the purpose of fitting
new gown. When she removed her gown
the dam was practically intact. Before she
could arrange herself in the new gown, and
she lost no time in attempting the opera
ton the water was six inches deep in her
parlor floor. Warned by the shouts of her
husband. she grasped her baby and ran for
the unbroken portion of the dixie, distant
but few feet from her husband Before
she could reach 1t the water was knee deep,
and she was thrown to the ground and
band. who followed her closely and sue
ceeded in getting her upon the unbroken
part of the embankment
The flood was so quick and so thorough
in its work that not a merchant a butcher,
baker. dry goods man or any dealer in
any Of the other necessaries of life was
able to save any portion of his stock The
consequence is that to-day i'm Shawneetown
there is not a loaf of bread pound of meat
or an ounce of drugs that can be bought
with money There is absolutely nothing in
the town for sale. Charles Carroll, the
chairman of the relief committee, and the
richest man in Gallatin county. said: Il can
not buy anything with which TO feed or
clothe my family. As soon as l am fin-
ished with my work right here in this room
| shall go to the wharfboat, where provi-
sicns are stored, take my place in line and
draw rations for my family who have alb
solutely nothing to eat and can get moth
ing but what 1 procure for them in this
way"
In addition 10 the pressing necessity for
food TO sustain life. seven hundred people
have been driven from their homes with
10 clothing but what they wore on their
backs at the time they were overtaken
Every available second-story room in town
is crowded, and of thoss whose homes were
wrecked a hundred or more arc camping in
the courthouse one hundred in the school
house and seventy-five in the loft of small
elevator. Fifty are quartered in Il Touring
mill, and the ferryboat Jessie Wilson has
furnished room for one hundred. These
% ople are huddled in those places with no
beds and no bed clothing, and such was the
demand for room in the town last night
that fully one hundred people remained on
the open levee in a cold and driving rain.
driven by Il gale of sixty miles an hour.
There Is no probability that they viii be
called on TO repeat this experience as many
of them have been taken TO Mount Vernon,
Cypress Junction and other places. The fa-
cilties for leaving the place arc so meager,
however, and the ne cessity for relief so
urgent, that unless the most prompt meas
ures are taken great suffering Will ensue.
The entire country. north, south and west
of Shawnee town, is covered with water, and