Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-07-13
The GREAT TEXAS FLOOD.
How the Big Brazos River Broke Its
Notorious Record for
Big Highs.
AN EVENT Ions TO Be REMEMBERED.
1t Has Cost the State, Probably, Hundreds
of Lives and Millions Upon Millions In
the Destruction of Crops and Public
and Private Property.

pOndent OF the OlODe-DeHOcraI, WIFI
ing from Caldwell, Tex, gives the fol-
lowing graphic story of the great dis
aster that has fallen upon the state:
The month of July of the present
year will long be remembered by Tex
ans as one during which the elements
seemed to have combined in an effort
to sweep away towns, railroads and
bridges and destroy crops throughout
the length and breadth of the state.
1t is known that great many lives
have been lost, and it is feared that
hundreds of negroes and Italians have
persisted on plantations in the Brazos
bottoms. The loss of property is Un-
precedented, and the damage sustain
ed by many railroads is simply beyond
all computation. In many instances
the roadbedS have been so badly dam
aged for long distances that the task
of repairing the work Will doubtless
surpass the original cost of construc-
ton.
The storm commenced in the west
ern part of the state several weeks
ago, and such large rivers as the Rio
Grande, the Colorado and many small
er streams were soon swollen beyond
the capacity of their shores, and the
country districts were flooded in re-
gions never before visited by the wa
ters of these streams. The San SaEa
rose 10 feet in few moments and the
pretty little town of Menardville was
swept away almost in the twinkGng
of an eye. San Saba and other towns
below were greatly damaged, and one
of the finest farming regions in west
ern Texas was completely submerged
and the crops entirely destroyed. Sew
cral lives were lost and nearly all the
cattle, horses. sheep and hogs in the
valley were drowned.
Bracket. near Fort Clark. in the Rio
Grande country. was suddenly struck
by moving wall of water higher than
the roofs of the houses. and it seems
little less than Il miracle that Il single
inhabitant escaped.
Before these floods had time to flow
out of the rivers the rain storm moved
further east over a more thickly popu-
lated region, and on the night of the
27th, n heavy rain fell that put all the
streams in the country out of their
banks and stopped the trains on near
~ all the railroads. On the 2Sth there
were constant showers sufficient to
keep the floods at high-water mark.
At this alarming moment, when
when every one felt that their homes
and crops were in imminent peril. The
clouds grew more appalling and tn"
rain began 20 fall in torrents. There
was not the least cessation of the
storm during the whole night. and the
oldest people in the country declared
that they had never seen such T;,in
fall from the heavens. The rains con-
tinued to fall during the next day and
night, as if they were the result of g
cioudburst, and the creeks and rivers
that were already above high-wateS
mark were simply doubled in volume.
In many localities that had never be-
fore been submerged the water was 40
feet deep, county roads were ruined
and in half dozen counties there are
not many bridges of any service.
\ food of water poured along the
Gulf, Colorado d Santa Fe railroad on
the division south of Temple, eating
away the roadbed and leaving the
track and ties suspended in the air.
Hardly bridge or culvert escaped for
q distance of so miles,
Not satisfied with the destruction of
the roadbed, the angry flood, by some
peculiar freak, frequently cut out
great excavations and swirled through
long cuts, tangling and mating ties
and iron and digging out great holes
in the earth.
Davidson creek, in Rurleson county.
which is little rivulet that one can
easily step across for IL months in the
year. spread out over the country for
four or five miles and left nothing be-
hind its roaring flood that could be
moved by illimitable force Three
costly railroad bridges and some eight
or ten wagon bridges were twisted to
fragments and lodged in the tops of
trees. Several long spans of the rail
road bridge on this creek are lying
tangled in the tops of lot of elm
trees, so feet from the earth.
Not less than seven rifles of the
roadbed of the Santa Fe have been to-
tally destroyed between Milano and
Caldwell. Three hundred men are at
work on this section, with little hope
of putting the road in shape for trains
in less than a week. This road is doubt
less the greatest sufferer from the
storm, bat they are importing laborers
by the thousand. and the work of re-
pairing the roadbed is being pushed
day and night. Not single train has
passed over this road for the past
eight days, and no one is able to say
when traffic will be resumed.
The big Brazos river has surpassed
all its former acts of deviltry in the
line of destroying property and drown
ing people 1t is difficult to effect
communication with numerous isolat-
ed settlements in the bottoms, and
many of the big plantations have not
been heard from. Rescuing parties in
skiffs and RATS are securing the bot
toms. and they have saved the lives of
hundreds of people. They report that
the houses in many sections have float
cd away, and they believe the people
who lived in them were lost. 1t is now
confidently believed that hundreds of
negroes and many white people have
been drowned.
The banks of the BraZos average
about forty feet above low-water mark
and it is not often that the big river
overffows its natural barriers, but Fri
day evening the muddy waters began
to creep over the cotton plantations
four or five miles from the river. This
created no very great alarm, but at
three o'clock on the next morning,
while the rain was falling through ut
ter darkness in torrents, great wall