The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1899-09-20
MISSOURI FLOOD OF 1874.
ssrprisirs Conditions Recalled ny
the Recent Rising of the
Braxos River.

The flood OF the Brazos river in Texas
was without precedent for that local.
ity. IL still puzzles the government
meteorologists, and they can only ac.
count for IL by most unusual conditions
of rainfall. The fact is interesting TO
recall that similar surprise occurred
in the Missouri valley over half cen.
tury ago. AS "the great food Of 1874, y
II has place in the local history. From
the earliest Indian traditions 10 the
present time that stands as the great
est flood of the lower Missouri. There
had been nothing to compare with IL be.
fore. There has been nothing like il
since. In the records of the govern
ment weather service these data about
the flood of 1874 are preserved:
THE stage reached on the present
scale Of river measurements was % feet
on June 20 at Kansas City, l6 feet
above the danger line. At bonneville
the river reached 1916 feet pa days
later, which was 1876 feet above the
danger line at that place. The food
was caused by the coincidence OF I'M
usually heavy and protracted rains,
with what is known as the June rise,
the melted SHOWS from headwaters. IL
is said that about the middle Of April
the rains began TO fall in brief show
ers nearly every other day. After few
weeks il began to rain every day. 1t
poured down for days and weeks, al
most without cessation. The river was
rising quite rapidly, but no danger was
anticipated, for the oldest settler had
never seen a general and destructive
a thing could occur. The river con-
tinued 70 rise, however, at the rate OF
~ 10 IS inches a day. until June S,
when II went over its banks, and the
situation became alarming. The chan
mel was full of driftwood: occasionally
a log house fioated down, with chickens
and turkeys on the roof. In several in
stances men, women and children were
seen on the tops of houses floating hither
and thither, and turned and twisted
about by heavy logs and jams, but the
people were rescued by parties in skiffs.
"On June 90 the water had reached
its highest point, and the next day be-
gan TO fall, but the damage done seemed
absolute and the ruin complete. The
flood extended from bluff TO bluff, gem
orally two miles. There was not an
acre of dry land in the river bottoms
from Kansas City TO the mouth of the
river. The rains subsidized, and the river
fell rapidly. A few persons moved
back TO their farms in what was then
a very sparsely settled region, and, al
though il was impossible TO do any
farming until the latter part OF July,
II is reliably reported that enough corn
was raised that season for the people
in many places TO subsist on.
"Where Kansas City now stands the
food was about three miles wide. In
what is now known as the packing
house and Wholesale district. where the
Union depot stands and all the switch
ing grounds are located, the water was
about ten feet deep. The food extend
ed over the present site of Armourdale
and Argentine. in Kansas, near the
mouth of the Kaw, but there were few
settlements at the junction of the Mis-
souri, and the Kaw in those days. A de-
plorable consequence of the great flood
was the season of sickness which fol-
lowed and the high rate of mortality.
1t is said that il was impossible 10 find
a well person on account of the miasma
resulting from the decaying animal and
vegetable matter. Chills and fever pre-
vailed in their most malignant form,
followed in the winter by spinal menin.
gifts, then called head disease which
proved very fatal. An important fact
with this flood was that
steamboats, going up the river found il
as low as usual above ST. Joseph, Mo.
All the tributaries Of the Missouri, in
the state of Missouri, are believed to
have overfowed their banks in 1914
very extensively, although in that early |
day there was scarcely anything TO
along the streams in the way of |
personal proPerty.-St Louis Globe
Democrat.