History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 17

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 17

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The survey of Mr. Joyce shows the acreage of Ar- senal Island to be 247.32 acres. The revetment made by the United States government engineers along the west shore, extending from a little below the northern apex towards the southern extremity, with revetment and dike on the east shore, would justify the conclusion that there will be little, if any, washing away in the future; but, on the contrary, a steady increase. The dike which was built on the east side some two or three years ago, above alluded to, has already formed a sand-bar on its south and ad- joining the island of some two hundred and sixteen acres, which will steadily increase by accretion. This in time will be as high as the island proper. The dikc is bound to obstruct the current forever on that side, and its being built on a foundation of brushwood fastened by piling and the whole imbedded with rock, justifies the belief that it is a permanent fixture.

The improvements of the harbor of St. Louis have passed through two stages. The first, arising out of a difficulty in the way of approach to the harbor, has already been considered. This difficulty stood also in the way of all the commerce passing St. Louis, and therefore the improvement was in no proper sense a local one. The second stage dates from about 1841 or 1843, and is marked by the addition to the former difficulty of an apprehension that the harbor would be entirely lost; not only that the main channel would be to the eastward of the island, but that the Missouri shore would speedily become inaccessible to boats.

Upon the authority of Capt. Cram, it appears that the volume of water in 1843 west of the island was to that east of it as ten to six. In December, 1845, the same officer says, the quantity running into the city channel was to the quantity running into the Il- linois as 1 is to 1.01. These changes rendered the closure of the chute east of Bloody Island a necessity to St. Louis, and the hope of being benefited by the misfortune of their rival accounts for the interest taken by Alton and Quincy in the matter of closing the chute much more satisfactorily than the pretended fear of injury from back-water caused by forcing the Missis- sippi to pass through a channel only four hundred and fifty yards wide.

In the years following the closure of the Bloody Island channel no matter of general interest arose until by the growth of the city and its trade the ex- tension of wharf facilities was required, and a third stage in the development of the demand for harbor improvement was introduced by the necessities of the traffic across the stream, the number of persons and railroad transfers requiring that both shores should be permanently accessible at numerous points.

1059

THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

The central and south wharves have now plenty of water. Regarding the establishment of the present north wharf line and clearing away the bar in front of it, the report of Col. W. E. Merrill, United States Engineers, after showing that the Grand Chain dike should be abandoned, as it only made matters worse at Sawyer's Bend, has the following: " The central har- bor being in good condition during the low stage, it is manifest that if we can make the northern harbor like the central we may expect the same results in it. In other words, if we can canalize this portion of the river to a sufficiently small section, giving it revetted banks, we may confidently expect a sufficiency of water. Moreover, when once this work is properly performed we need have no further apprehensions about the angle at which the river current enters the city limits. It will be forced through so narrow a channel as to make the variations of the current a matter of indifference. If we could succeed in getting the river to abandon the Sawyer Bend and to take the eastern channel by Cabaret Island we would doubtless attain our object, and a shoal extending from Venice west- ward would ultimately narrow the water-way to the prescribed width. But having concluded that no re- liance could be placed upon any means under our control for effecting this change, it only remains to see if we cannot accomplish the same thing in a dif- ferent manner. Our object will be to contract the water-way in the northern harbor so as to force the water to run in the channel which we wish, notwith- standing it comes from Sawyer's Bend. There is a permanent low-water channel already established in the northern harbor, though it is not alongside the north- ern wharf. Either the city must move to this channel or the channel must be made to come to the city. The former method would be more natural, and in an en- gineering point of view would be much preferable. Our studies have shown us that in its natural condition a river has no right lines, passing directly from a curve bending one way into a curve bending in the opposite direction. If, then, the northern wharf line were moved out to the edge of the bar and made to conform to the curve of the channel, we should have a natu- rally formed river from below the Grand Chain to the elevator. With shore lines thus established tliere would be no difficulty in making permanent revet- ments." After instancing a number of objections to this course, such as the abandonment of a line on which much work had been done, lengthening the sewers, damages to water-front owners, etc., the engi- neer's report says,-

" Under these eircumstanees the only course that seems left is to force the river to come to the wharf, which the eity has

established. That this ean be done I have no doubt, though the channel so formed will be an unnatural and, therefore, ex- pensive one. . . . To foree the water channel over to the eity wharf we must drive it by a series of dikes. The dikes already constructed by City Engineer Bischoff will be the first of the system, the long dike extended will be the third, an interme- diate dike at or near Venice Landing will be the second, and a fourth dike may be needed at the head of Bloody Island. I would recommend that they be raised to the height of fourteen feet above low water."

It is upon this report of Col. Merrill that the city has based its latter-day wharf plans.1

The present United States engineers are not so san- guine that the river can be brought to the wharf, but think the wharf must go to the river.

According to their reports, the complete improve- ment of the harbor of St. Louis requires, first, the fixation of the banks above the city so as to control the approach to the harbor and preserve the condi- tions of entrance invariable ; sccond, the regulation of the width and depth in front of the city by regu- lar permanent lines of definition at high and low stages.

1 The Republican of March 20, 1857, speaking of the wharf, said,-

" The whole of this magnificent work, fron Market Street to Loeust, has been completed and is now ready for use. Those who recolleet the condition of the Levee when Mr. Kennett eame into offiee, less than a year ago, ean hardly realize the change which it has undergone. It was then a narrow, unpaved, and irregular spot, upon which business could be done only in the greatest confusion and with still greater delay. A narrow street afforded very little room for the receiving and discharging of freight, and the drays were so jammed together that it was im- possible to get along. Now, thanks to Mr. Kennett's sound judgment, knowledge of the demands of commerce, and energy in carrying out his plans, he has, with the aid of the Council, built up and carried out a levee which has not its like in the United States. The work before him was enough to startle a man less bold and less confident of the ability to carry out his plans than himself. It was necessary not only to extend the wharf into the river, but also to fill up the ground several feet, and upon this a solid and durable pavement was to be laid. All this has been accomplished under circumstances of a very dis- eouraging character. Merchants can now do their business with some comfort, the boats ean discharge and receive their freight in one-half the time and in good condition, and the draymen ean pursue their laborious ealling without delay and without being constantly jammed against each other. For this improvement the community is indebted to Mr. Kennett. Be- fore he came into offiee it was going on at a snail's pace, and upon so narrow and contracted a plan that no advantage eould have been derived from it, even if it had been paved.

" If Mr. Kennett is continued in office-and the citizens will do great injustice to themselves if they do not elect him without a serious eontest-seven additional bloeks south of Main Street will be completed before the end of the summer, and then what a magnificent levee it will be ! The work is going on as rap- idly as possible; it gives employment to hundreds of men, and the sooner it is all completed the sooner the city will be able to effeet a reduetion in the rates of wharfage."

1060

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

"The first requires the revetment of the right bank for the whole length of Sawyer Bend, and possibly a section of the Illinois shore opposite to and above the Chain of Rocks, also the closing of Cabaret slough by a high embankment and re- vetment of the head of the island. Besides the work here named it is improbable that any will be required for many years upon that part of the city front above the water-works. The concave bank insures the permanent location of the channel close to the Missouri shore, and the west side of Cabaret Island is more likely to receive accretions than suffer abrasion. There- fore, unless by the growth of new interests or unforeseen ex- pansion of those existing, a necessity should arise for deep water on the east side, this part of the river may be considered the ap- proach to the harbor, and, except the work named, may be left to nature. The extent of bank to be revetted in Sawyer's Bend is twenty-seven thousand feet.

" The regulated canalized river harbor will begin near the city water-works, and the upper limit may be fixed at the pres- ent Bischoff's dike, which now extends from the Illinois shore to within one thousand five hundred and seventy fect of the St. Louis wharf."

By the River and Harbor Act of 1882 it is pro- vided

" that the unexpended sums heretofore appropriated for an ice- harbor at St. Louis, Mo., be and the same are hereby transferred and appropriated, to be expended, under the direction of the Secretary of War, for the improvement of the channel of the Mississippi River opposite the city of St. Louis, Mo., by repair- ing and raising the low dam across the channel east of Arse- nal Island, known as Cahokia chute, and by the construction of such other works in or near said Cahokia chute as may be deemed advisable to accomplish the same purpose."

The harbor of St. Louis, extending from the Des Peres River on the south to the northern extremity of the city, is nearly fourteen miles in length, of which' nearly four miles are paved, and cmbraces an area of water of nearly five square miles.

The total expenditures for the improvement of the harbor of St. Louis from October,, 1840, to April, 1869, amounted to $1,012,551.68.

Floods in the Mississippi and Tributaries, and the Levee System .- The Mississippi River and its tributaries drain an area above and including the Red River as follows :

Square Miles.

I. The Missouri River and tributaries .....

II. The Ohio

519,400 202,400

III. The Upper Mississippi River and trib- utaries. 184,500

IV. The Arkansas and White Rivers and tributaries

176,700

V. The Red River and tributarics.

102,200

VI. The Yazoo, Obion, and Black Rivers and tributaries ... 29,300

VII. The St. Francis River and tributaries ..

12,100

Total .. 1,226,600

The rainfall over this vast extent of country has been carefully investigated, and forty inches has been fixed upon as the annual downfall, which must, of course, be carried off, either by evaporation or drainage.

Supposing, says Charles Ellet, Jr., that " from any cause,-as the tillage of the prairies, the destruc- tion of the vegetable growth, or the better drain- age of the ficlds,-out of the forty inches of rain, two-fifths of an inch, or nearly one per cent. of the whole, should be discharged into the Mississippi in the course of sixty days of flood over and above the present discharge. If this slight increase of the total discharge were distributed uniformly over the whole period of sixty days of high water, it would require that tlie channel of the river should be com- petent to give vent to an increased volume equal to two hundred and twenty thousand cubic feet per second. If this increased volume be retained in the channel by levees, these levees must be raised six feet higher than the tops of the present (1854) embankments."1 The object of the computations by which this conclu- sion was arrived at by Mr. Ellet was to show how sensitive is the discharge of the Mississippi River to every variation, however inconsiderable, of the drain- age of the country ; and to prove that if the evapo- ration be slightly reduced, or the drainage slightly hastened or increased by the causes which are pro- gressing with increasing population and the extension of cultivation, then for every fifth part of an inch by which the total drainage is increased in the period of high water there must be experienced an average increase of about three feet in the heights of the floods, unless the water can find its accustomed vents into the swamps. This statement will aid in form- ing somc estimate of the consequences which are to spring from the extension of society over the yet un- peopled West, and the cultivation of the vast territory which is drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, increasing the amount of water poured down the lower Mississippi, while the population of that por- tion of the valley is closing the accustomed outlets of the river in the extension of the levees.

A great flood is the result of a simultaneous dis- charge of the great tributaries which ordinarily run off successively. The high water produced by the Red and Arkansas Rivers, in the ordinary course of things, has begun to subside before that of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee comes down ; and thesc, again, begin to recede before the upper Mississippi discharges its volume; and this, in its turn, subsides before the snows of the Rocky Mountains are melted by the tardy sun in those high latitudes, and the water has time to flow off through the thrce thousand miles of channel intervening between the sources of those distant streams and the head of the delta. It is a

1 " Mississippi and Ohio Rivers," by Charles Ellet, Jr.

1061

THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

part of the natural order of events that these great rivers should discharge successively. But when, under circumstances over which there exists no control, the ordinary order of successive discharge is changed for a simultaneous pouring out of all the tributaries, then comes the "year of great waters," like 1785, 1811, 1823, 1826, 1844, 1858, and 1881.

The first unusual rise of the Mississippi River of which we have any account took place in 1542. In March of that year, while De Soto and his followers were at an Indian village on the western side of the " Rio Grande," as the early Spaniards called the Mis- sissippi, which from its elevated description indicates the site of Helena, in Arkansas, there was a rise in the river which covered all the surrounding country as far as the eye could reach. In the village (repre- sented to have been on high ground) the water rose from five to six feet above the earth, and the roofs of the Indian cabins were the only places of shelter. The river remained at this height for several days, and then subsided rapidly.

The earliest authentic account of the American Bottom being submerged is that of the flood of 1724. A document is to be found in the archives of Kaskaskia, which consists of a petition to the crown of France, in 1725, for a grant of land, in which the damage sustained the preceding year (1724) by the rise of the water is mentioned. The villagers were driven to the bluffs on the opposite side of the Kaskaskia River, their gardens and corn-fields were destroyed, and their buildings and property much injured. We have no evidence of its exact height, but the whole American Bottom was submerged. This was proba- bly in June.

There was a tradition among the old French peo- ple many years since that there was an extraordinary risc of the river between 1740 and 1750, but we find no written or printed account of it.

In the year 1772 another flood came, and portions of the American Bottom were again covered. Fort Chartres, in 1756, stood half a niile from the Missis- sippi River; in 1776 it was eighty yards. Two years after, Capt. Pittman, who surveyed the fort in 1768, states,-

"The bank of the Mississippi next the fort is continually fall- ing in, being worn away by the eurrent, which has been turned from its course by a sand-bank, now increased to a considerable island covered with willows. Many experiments have been tried to stop this growing evil, but to no purpose. Eight years ago the river was fordable to the island; the channel is now forty feet deep."

About the year 1770 the river made further en- croachments, but in 1772, when it inundated portions of the American Bottom, it swept away the land to June.

the fort and undermined the wall on that side, which tumbled into the river. A large and heavily-timbered island now occupies the " sand-bar" of Capt. Pittman's time, between which and the site of the fort a slough runs.

The next period of extreme high water was in 1785, during which Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and large portions of the American Bottom were submerged. Concern- ing this great inundation we have but meagre infor- mation. This year, however, is known in the annals of Western history as l'année des grandes eaux,- the year of the great waters. In 1844 it was con- tended by some of the old inhabitants of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, who remembered the great flood of 1785, that the water attained a greater height then than in the last-mentioned year. It is certain that at Kaskaskia the water attained a greater height in 1844 than was reached in 1785. This is not predicated upon the mere recollections of individuals, but was ascertained from existing marks of the height of the flood of that year after the subsidence of the water in 1844. It was then proved that in this last-men- tioned year the water rose two feet and five inches above the high-water mark of 1785. The destruction of property by this freshet was comparatively small. The mighty stream spread over a wilderness tenanted only by wild beasts and birds, and the few inhabitants then residing within the range of its destructive sweep easily escaped with small loss to the highlands. Gen. Edgar once said that in Kaskaskia the water rose to the surface of the door-sill of the house of the late Robert Morrison, but that in one place, where the court-house stood a few years since, the ground was above the water. That season the inhabitants passed by means of water-craft through the prairies and lakes from Cahokia to Kaskaskia. This flood destroyed all the crops, and did much damage about the French villages on the American Bottom.

There were high waters so as to overflow the low grounds and fill the lakes and sloughs on the Ameri- can Bottom at other seasons subsequent to 1785, but none that deserve attention until that of 1811. It was in the summer preceding the "shakes," as the earthquakes were called.

This flood resulted in part from the annual rise of the Missouri, as did the ones previously noticed. The flood in the Missouri always occurs between the 15th and 30th of June, and is caused by the snows melt- ing in the mountains at the heads of the main Mis- souri. In some seasons the Yellowstone, which is in a more southern latitude, pours out a flood which reaches St. Louis about the last of May or 1st of

1062

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

In 1811 the Mississippi River commenced rising early in May, and by the 15th the water had spread over a large portion of the American Bottom. The water began to subside, and by the 1st of June was only over the banks in low places. By the 6th of June the river again commenced rising, and continued to rise until the 14th, when it came to a stand. At this time the greater part of the American Bottom was under water, and Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie du Pont, Cantien, and nearly all the settlements in the bottom were inundated, and the inhabitants had fled to the high lands.

The "common fields" belonging to Ste. Genevieve were on the bottom land adjacent to the river, much of which has since been swept away, the steamboats now running over the same spot. The water entirely submerged the field, and nearly covercd the growing corn. A story is still narrated by the oldest inhab- itants that at the time of the flood some of the panic-stricken inhabitants waited on Father Maxwell, the village priest, to "pray away the water." It is said he gave no direct encouragement at first, until he perceived the water at a stand, when he proposed to the corn-growers to drive off the waters by saying masses for a share of all the corn they raised. The bargain was struck, the masses were said, and the waters suddenly retired from their fields. The ground was soon dry and in good order, the corn looked grecn, and the priest, it is said, shared in the luxuriant crop.

There was considerable destruction of property by this freshet, and a great many cattle drowned. The height attained by the water during this freshet has never been precisely ascertained. But it is believed that the flood was not so great as that during l'année des grandes eaux.

The flood of 1811 was much greater than any that followed until 1823, when a sudden change in the temperature after a winter when the snowfall was unprecedentedly heavy throughout the Northwest and the fall of very heavy rains caused the Mississippi to commence rising rapidly about the 8th of May, 1823. It continued to rise rapidly until the 23d of the month, when it came to a stand. At that time the water entirely covered the American Bottom, and the citizens of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Cantien, French Vil- lage, Wood River, Madison, and other settlements had been compelled to abandon their homes and seek refuge on the bluffs and in St. Louis. The houses in the lower part of St. Louis were surrounded by water. The Levec was submerged, and the river rose to the lower room in the old store at the foot of Oak Street (then kept by John Shackford) about five feet. The

water overflowed all the low grounds about East St. Louis.1

The loss of cattle was very great, and the farmers suffered heavily throughout the American Bottom. The high land about where that part of East St. Louis known as Papstown is now built, and la bute à renard, or the Fox Mound, which had escaped sub- mersion during the flood of l'année des grandes eaux, were the only dry ground in the American Bottom, except some mounds whose tops were of no great extent. In this, as in the flood of 1811, there exists no means of ascertaining the height which the river attained, nor are there the means of as- certaining the amount of destruction which was ac- complished by this great freshet.

The scason of 1826 was characterized by tremen- dous rainfalls throughout the whole Northwest, and the Mississippi was very high throughout the spring from about the 15th of April. Towards the close of May the river had overflowed its banks and spread for miles over the country. By the 8th of June Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Prairie du Pont, Cantien, and the common fields of Ste. Genevieve were submerged. The loss of stock and other property was very great. The in- habitants of the " bottoms" sought refuge either on the bluffs back in Illinois or among the hills of Mis- souri, or in St. Louis. There is, so far as we can ascertain, no record left of the height attained this year by the water in the river. The river came to a stand on the 10th of the month, and on the 11th was falling rapidly. By the 25th the river had reached an ordinary stage,-the great flood had been lost in the vast volume of waters of the gulf.

The winter of 1843-44 was not one of unusual severity, though there were tremendous snow-storms throughout the Northwest. The winter broke up early in May, but the weather continued cool, and the spring was characterized by the severest rain-storms ever known in the Northwest. Early in the scason the river began to rise, and by the 1st of May was full almost to overflowing. The population of Mis- souri and Illinois had greatly increased, farming had improved the soil and largely facilitated the drainage of the land. Towns and settlements had sprung up everywhere, and along the river-banks centres of popu- lation had gathered and garnered great wealth.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 17

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358