Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1916-03-15
FORMER RESIDENT
WRITES LETTER
o. b. Stephens, of Bemidji, Mimi,
an Old DEBORAH Resident Has
Memories of erry Run
When it G IA
Rampage
TELLS ABOUT THE
ICE Z NG OUT
Was Attending School HeA q 1861
in the Old st. Cloud e 81
Building, When Dry II
Gave Him Plenty of
Excitement.

1t is now about fifteen years since
/ was in Decorah last. And / know
that at that time even, you had old
Dry Run pretty well curbed But |
have seen it when it was not. And
did not want to be. For it happen
ed that | was III Decorah going to
school at the OLD ST. Cloud hotel
building in the spring of 1865. II
had been a hard winter Hard cold
spells and plenty of snow. Several
feet of it, Then probably some time
in the month of March this big snow
went off after a two days mild rain.
All seemed to melt the last night.
And we all know what that means IN
a hill country with several feet of
frost in the ground. | was then just
10 years of age and very much alive
when there was anything extra on
the program. Then it happened tina.
one cloudy and misty morning as we
were leaving the breakfast tables in
the old basement of the school build
ing some one reported that Dry Run
was going to run wild. And while we
were supposed to go back to study
! think nearly every man was SO
much interested that we ran bare
. headed down to the little bridge at
the old Central House, about block
away. The little stone hotel was then
occupied by a family, named Har.
mon. / remember two of the child
ren, Joe and Kate.
| think that little bridge was the
only one above that on E. Water St.
near which the Tobiason family liv
ed. Well when we got there we could
see the water coming further up,
pushing along before it a wall Of
snow and ice a couple of feet high
and quite wide. 1t did not take II
long to reach the bridge. About then
an old man came from the Central
House with a long handled spade.
=
ing to punch under the larger pieces
OF ice and so save the bridge. The
while the larger pieces of ice were
passing under rubbing their backs up
under the girders in great shape. And
it was not long before the old man
got his spade caught and lost, JUST
barely saving himself from being
jerked in after it. We did not sec
any more of the spade until later In
the game. During these few minutes
man at a nearby livery barn was
hitching up a team to lumber Wag~
on and come to cross the bridge to
rescue a poor war widow and her
family a little ways over on the bot
tom, south. The water now had risen
till ii poured over the grade for manV
rods south. He made a quick trip
and got back safe, but the water now
covered the bridge by few inches.
But n few minutes later we saw an
9th. team and lumber wagon ap-
approaching from the south. Two
men standing up in the box. They
drove through knee deep water for
quite a stretch. think they were so
intent on keeping straight ahead on
the grade that they never thought OF
the floating ice. But it proved to be
a bad mistake, for while they were
yet so feet away from the bridge a
large cake OF ice, the size of wagon
box and two feet thick, came alone
and took the feet from under the
team carrying the whole outfit into
the ditch on the side, where the wat
er was so deep the team started at
once to swim The lines probably
prevented them from turning sharp
ly to the right, where they could have
touched bottom in a distance of 4
few feet. Any way they headed to
cross the stream to the left bank,
where now stood a large crowd OF
men and boys. But as soon as the
wagon got into deep enough water
the box fioated up and was carried
swiftly down stream, the while spin
ming round and round, till one end
touched the left bank, that being
higher than the water for ways be-
low the bridge. Well, that afforded
the man nearest that end a good
chance to jump onto dry land, and
he was not slow to avail himself OF
the opportunity. Then the whilom
boat was carried into midstream