The most extraordinary inundation with which Marietta has been visited since its settlement, came down upon us last week – extraordinary from its suddenness as well as from its apparent lack of cause; for all the rain that has fallen here from the beginning of April to the present time does not amount to 3 inches – a quantity altogether inadequate to make a rise of two feet in the Ohio.
On Monday morning, the 9th, the Muskingum began to swell; but nothing was thought of it. On Tuesday, both rivers rose rapidly, but as no rain had fallen here to justify a large rise, no danger was apprehended. On Wednesday morning the question was, not whether the water would come over the banks, but would it come into the stores and dwellings? The water rose all day at the rate of 8 or 9 inches an hour; and great was the rush of goods and chattels to the upper shelves and upper stories. Long before night no dry ground was left on the Point. Still higher came the aqueous element, and early in the evening it reached the floors of the stores and residences of that favored locality.
Thursday morning found it over three feet deep in our office, and still rising four inches an hour. At noon it slackened off to three inches and gradually lessened till Friday noon, when it came to a stand, the water being six feet and five inches in our store and office, nine to ten feet in the street in front of us, ten inches higher than the flood of April 22, 1852, and about three feet below the flood of February, 1832. Friday afternoon, the water commenced receding, and fell so rapidly that the “dry land” appeared on Sunday morning, and on Monday morning, both rivers had retired to their usual channels.
Saturday night was spent in following the retiring flood from our stores and dwellings with broom and brush, thus preventing an unwelcome deposit of an inch or two of the purest mud. This labor of necessity occupied most of Sunday, which appeared to be the busiest day of the week.
The Muskingum was the chief cause of our troubles; that river, above Lowell and Beverly, being from 9 to 15 inches higher than ever known before. It continued to rise sometime after the Ohio had come to a stand.
Damage. – Great stories are circulated outside of Marietta as to the fabulous damages sustained in the city by the inundation. If one-half the stories were true, we should be a used-up community. But fortunately this is not the case. Considering the rapidity of the unexpected overflow, the damage has been remarkably small. The lower bridge on Front street was slightly broken – the sidewalk on Greene street washed away about 40 feet, lamp posts bent over, and other slight damage done, to the amount probably of $300 or $400 in all. Messrs. Cram, Temple and Dana & Co. have lost several hundred dollars worth of lumber; and considerable loss accrued to the tanneries of Messrs. J. C. Fell, Dye & McCarty, and Stein & Johnson, by overflowing their vats, wetting their bark, &c. To the merchants and residents the loss will prove inconsiderable, aside from the suspension of business. Marietta is right side up yet, and will continue so to the end, and a pleasanter place to live in no one need search for.
Bridges. – About 150 feet of the tin and rafter roofing of the railroad bridge over the Muskingum was carried away by the violent storm of rain and hail, on Sunday night, the 8th.
Three bridges on the Plank Road were washed off by the late freshet. The lower Duck Creek bridge was removed about six feet down stream by the same high water.
J. Hutchinson had 1500 bushels of corn on Muskingum Island, damaged to the amount of $500 by the late overflow. The rich sediment left on the island will come near making up this loss.
The Muskingum Improvement has been damaged by the late flood to the extent of $10,000 to $15,000. At Winsor, the river washed out a new bed outside the lock, two hundred feet wide and twenty or thiry deep, carrying away two or three small houses. This chasm has to be filled up with brush, stone and earth. Mr. Haskin, the resident engineer, repaired promptly to the spot, and a large force was set to work. At Taylorsville, considerable damage was caused. We understand the repairs will be completed so that navigation can be resumed within twelve or fourteen days.
Outrageous. – That the captain of a steam boat should presume to navigate our rivers when the banks are overflowed half way up people’s houses, is an outrage that deserves the severest condemnation. During the highest stage of water, the steamboat Vulcan, with eight or ten coalboats in tow, passed up the Ohio, close to our shores, throwing great waves against the buildings, rocking them from their foundations, throwing down out houses and fences, and doing much damage to property. There is little doubt but the master or owners of this boat could be made to pay for the loss thus caused. The Emma Graham thoughtlessly paddled up the Muskingum on Wednesday, much to the annoyance of the people and damage to their property. The Graham knows better.
Photographs. – Hollister has taken a series of photographic views of Marietta in high water, for one of the eastern pictorials. They are very fine. Those of our citizens who desire copies of these memorials of wet times can procure them from Mr. H.
Curious Discovery
Mr. Editor: I doubt not many of our citizens, while searching their premises for their own as for lost treasure, will often come upon some things which “moving accidents by flood and field” have unceremoniously wrested from former owners and transferred to their own more favored locality. An incident of this kind has happened to me, which I think deserving of notice. While busily engaged in putting thins to rights about the premises, I stumbled on a nondescript machine-looking concern, and after cleaning and ileing the thing, discovered the smell of printer’s ink upon it. This aroused by suspicions, and having procured the services of the boy Bill, It was put in motion, when it promptly delivered itself of the following machine poetry:Hi-ar Wather Lyric
From the haunts of old Nokomis,
Gushing down Monongahela
Thundering down the Allegany,
Came the torrent wildly foaming,
Joined with Beaver and Kittanning,
Joined with Duck Creek, young Muskingum,
And a host of other like ones.
Big Muskingum now uniting,
All together rushing onward
Till –
Stop her, Bill; she’s got past Marietta now. Giver her a lick back and try a different meter:
The rain came down with a rushing din,
And washed Ohio to his chin;
Muskingum raised up in a ridge
Until his head did hit the bridge!
That’s better, Bill; but give us something more solemn and appropriate to the occasion:
I stand upon Muskingum’s brink,
And see “the last of earth,”
While swiftly floating down the drink,
Goes everything I’m worth.
I wish I staid on Harmar hill,
Or lived on one that’s higher!
I vow! To choose between two ills,
I’d sooner have a fire!
Times isn’t like they used to was,
When all the streets was dry;
The pretty girls float round on slabs,
Or stay up stairs and cry!
O, if a boat would come along,
I’d not stay here an hour,
My clothes are corked up in a jug –
I think there’ll be a shower.
I wish I had a load of slabs,
I’d make a little boat
And on the raging O-hi-o
I’d set myself afloat.
I’d go where Jennings makes his home,
Where people live in trees;
Their toes together grow in webs,
Just like they grow on geese!
If ever I come back again
To this submerged town,
I hope I’ll fall in Kissing Creek,
And stay there till I drown!
That’s feeling, Bill, very; but there is danger of its running into the lugubrious. Let’s have something more business like:
When I can sell my calicoes
To girls that do them prize,
I’ll bid farewell to brooms and hoes
And throw in hooks and eyes!
Let others talk against the town
And let them move away;
So I can make the year come round,
I rather think I’ll stay!
Stop her, Bill! She’s eating up my new hymn-book! Now put the masheen into the garret till we have to carry the goods up there again to keep it company.
The above, Mr. Editor, is “a true copy” of the effusions as they came from the machine. Bill, who did the turning, says in his opinion it’s “fust rate poetry,” and ought to be printed. I therefore take my pen in hand to write you these few lines, hoping they may find you in the enjoyment of the same opinion.
Yours till drown-ded,
Front Street.
No comments:
Post a Comment