Old Marietta Papers - Number 25

The Marietta Register, March 18, 1864

"Old Marietta Papers' was a series of columns compiled and published in 1863 and 1864 by Rodney M. Stimson, editor of "The Marietta Register."

The Flood of 1832, the most famous of all floods in the annals of Marietta, here demands notice.

Jan. 1, 1832, it was announced that the week previous had been "intensely cold," such as had "never been witnessed by our oldest inhabitants." The rivers were frozen over and teams crossed on the ice, There was about four inches of snow on the ground. On Jan. 14, there had been a break up in consequence of warm weather. Snow disappeared and the rivers were disgorging themselves of the ice which was about a foot thick. Many boats and much property suffered destruction from the ice. The steamboat Emigrant was sunk at Harmar, and went off in the ice. Part of her machinery was taken out. The steamer Whit was destroyed at Parkersburg; the Pittsburgh, just below the city of Pittsburgh; and the Potomac, Lady Washington, Chesapeake, and New Jersey, all at Cincinnati, we believe. The rivers were not very high at this time.

It soon turned very cold again, and on Jan. 26th, the mercury stood at 10 degrees below zero. Snow about eight inches deep at this point. 

Feb. 4th, it was announced that there were "copious showers, which promised to raise the rivers, and prepare them at least for navigation."

Feb. 11. "Much rain has fallen. The creeks have all been filled to overflowing, and the great river now threatens inundation to all the lowlands. Last evening (Friday, 10th) the banks of the Ohio, at this place, were beginning to overflow."

From this time - Friday evening, Feb. 10, 1832, when the Ohio began to overflow its banks in this place - it was "lively times" in Marietta for a few days. The "Friend" missed its publication in the following week, and the next week after only a small sheet was issued - although the printing office was above high water on Fifth Street, back of the College grounds. The water continued rising about four inches an hour through Saturday and Sunday; and on Monday morning, Feb. 13, at 8 o'clock, it came to a stand - "at the height of five feet more than it had been known since the settlement of the country." In several houses at the Point, of low stories, it was on the second floor, and the inhabitants left them for the higher ground. Some small buildings, shops and stables were removed from their foundations, some being carried away.

The "Friend" defends the town, and says, "the place has suffered little comparatively with other towns on the Ohio," and instances Pittsburgh and Wheeling at which places the damages from the flood were very large. It says: "The river on Saturday and Sunday, was literally full of property from above - many buildings of light construction, hay, wheat and oat stacks, rails, boards, rafts of lumber."

Feb. 15 - Wednesday - people who had been driven from their houses at the Point returned to them. Many had lived in their second stories.

At Wheeling, Saturday evening, Feb. 11th, the water was 49 feet above low water mark; 15 or 20 frame dwelling houses were swept off. Wellsburg was entirely overflowed. From headwaters, the flood came principally from the Allegheny, not much from the Monongahela. The Pittsburgh Democrat says: "On Friday last (10th) Pittsburgh, Allegheny-Town, and the lowlands bordering the rivers were visited by the horrors and devastation of the greatest flood that ever occurred since the erection of Fort Duquesne by the French; and it would be in vain to attempt to give the particulars of the losses by our fellow citizens, or to describe the perilous escapes from the raging element." The Democrat estimates the loss in Pittsburgh at "exceeding $200,000," and says the water there rose 31 feet above low water mark.

The flood was at its height at Pittsburgh, Feb. 10th, at 9 o'clock, P.M.; at Wheeling, on the 11th, at 8 P.M.; at Marietta, 13th, at 8 A.M.; at Cincinnati, on the morning of the 18th, being a trifle over a week later than at Pittsburgh. Cincinnati was flooded back to the "Lower Market," between Second and Third streets - 631 feet above low water mark.

In correcting exaggerated statements abroad in reference to the damage by this flood in Marietta, placing the amount at $50,000, the "Friend" says: "It is our opinion that half the sum mentioned, perhaps one-third, will repair all losses actually sustained."

Of the exaggerations - not to say lies - told about the flood in Marietta, the following are specimens. A letter from Wheeling to the Philadelphia Chronicle states:

"The steamboat Columbus, which has just arrived, reports that not a vestige remains of many of the towns below. Marietta presents a most melancholy appearance. A large portion of the place has entirely disappeared (!), and in the higher parts of the town little more is to be seen than the tops of the chimneys. Nothing could be learned of the safety of the inhabitants as the boat could not effect a safe landing."

People here who know the truth may possibly call that a genuine specimen of "tall lying." Another paper says:

"A gentleman recently from the West says that while running up the Ohio, several hundred buildings were met floating down; and that at Marietta, the steamboat in which he was passed through the streets [perhaps true at the Point] and delivered her passengers at the third story windows of the houses."

That'll do!

To prove that Marietta was not killed, on March 24th the "Friend":

"Our situation is salubrious and commanding. Many have decided to locate here, and a considerable influx of population is expected. Arrangements are making for the erection of more handsome and desirable buildings the approaching season, than have been put up in any one season before."