Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-07-13
fields, making a noise like an approach


ing hurricane. Frightened men anG
screaming women and children quick
ly assembled to the roofs of their house,
and began to fire guns, blow horns
ring bells and shout for help. No ont
knows how many of these houses, with
whole families clinging to them, wer,
swept away to destruction and death
All day Saturday the river continued
70 rise, and thousands of people wht
building RATS and boats for the ven
turesome rescuers who were bravely
rowing over the submerger planta
tions, engaged in saving the helpless
people who were on the roofs of thaii
dwellings. The negroes were Otter
found perched on the roofs of thei!
cabins, praying and shouting, and new
er in any instance making the least eff
fort to construct RATS OF boats. Or
and the current at Stone City wa:
literally choked with floating houses
bridge timbers and live and dead ami
mails. Stone City was believed to b.
above high-water mark, but on Sunda,
the river was above the second-storN
windows of the dwelling houses. Al
this point the river was ten miles wide
About five hundred people from the
surrounding country had assembled
on the bluffs to witness the appalling
scene. y merchant who arrived from
the opposite shore in a small boat saiC
that he believed that whole settle
ment of Italians and all the negroc:
on several plantations had been drown
ed.
Stone City, on the east bank of the
BraZos, is the terminus of short feed,
er of the international Great Northern
railroad. This is one of the richest cot
ton belts in Texas. At least 200 square
miles, or 12S,OOO acres. of these fertile
bottom lands are under the highest
state of cultivation, and before the
flood the plantations were covered
with magnificent crop of cotton
every acre of which would have pro.
duced big bale. Not a bale of all this
vast crop will be saved, and the loss
even at scent figures, reaches the encr.
nous sum of $500, 900. This is a mere
bagatelle compared with the total loss
that will be sustained by the planters
on the shores of this terrible river
from its source to Nelasco.
At Old Washington, 20 miles below
here, the flood is over twenty miles
wide. The Alligator Branch railroad
from Summerville to Navasota, is en-.
tirely submerged, and not hoof oI
live stock in the big pastures of that
region has escaped death. The magnifi.
cent cotton plantations OF the Allen
farm district are all under 20 feet o.
water, and not a bale of cotton or IN
ear of corn will survive the disaster.
The cotton buyers at BRENNAN, Bry-
an and Caldwell estimate the Brazus
alone has destroyed Il crop that was
worth not less than s. 900, 900. There is
no way of making an estimate as &c
the loss in buildings, gins and live
stock, but it is safe to say that S2,O00,'
900 would not repair the damage.
Some idea of the force of the current
may be gathered from the manner IN
which it twisted the powerhouse and
lifted the great boilers from their
foundation at Caldwell. Wien one
comes to realize that the Rio Grande.
the Colorado, the San Saba and sc
smaller streams, have done THEFT
worst to spread destruction along
their shores, we are forced to the con.
clusion that Texas has received a VERY
serious blow.
The damage done at Bracket by
the recent overflow is put at S2O0,OOC
to merchandise alone. Every horse arC
cow in the town was drowned, anG
about 80 houses were washed away
The damage to the Southern Pacific
railway will exceed 5000, 900, and the
total damage in the Rio Grande Val.
ley will be considerably over 1000.
900.
y young girl was rescued from Il
large tree which she had been clinging
to for several hours. She said that The
house occupied by her people had
foated for some distance in the dark
ness, and thai it had turned over, and
she supposed that her father and
mother and two children persisted.
Menardville, on the San Saba, was
a rich little town in the center of an
irrigated farming region regarded us
one of the most prosperous sections
of the country in the whole state. 1t
is reported that wall of water 40
feet high swept the whole town away
and almost entirely ruined every farm
along the river. 1t is very evident that
if the damage that the people of he
state have sustained from this UMPIRE
cedented flood could be estimated that
the figures would tax the creduliiy
of all who were not eye-witnesses of
the disaster.
Two important lessons are to be
learned from this remarkable rain
storm. The first is that neither the
railroad engineers nor the construc-
tors of the county bridges and cu!-
verss make sufficient allowance or
rather sufficient space for the escape
of the water in the creeks and rivers.
The culyerts are too small and the
bridges are not long enough to accom-
modate an overflow of more than ordi.
nary dimensions. The second is that
the planters on the great rivers viii
have to build levees sooner or later
The loss that has been sustained b.
the overflow of the Brazos would hav,
good levees on both slider
of the river from Calvert to Velasco.
Some very remarkable incidents
occurred in connection with the flood.
\ whole family was rescued from a
substantial frame structure that had
fioated at least Is miles. The family
was aroused just before daylight by
the noise of the waters and the mo-
ton of the building. They were, of
course, terribly frightened, but it