USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 10
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Lerma, a postoffice of Webster county, 8 miles northwest of Walthall, the county seat.
Lespideza, a post-hamlet of Panola county, 8 miles east of Sardis, one of the two seats of justice for Panola county, and the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 40.
Lessley, a postoffice of Wilkinson county.
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Lettie, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Winston county, about 14 miles southeast of Louisville, the county seat. Popula- tion in 1900, 50.
Levees. Since the advent of the white man into the Mississippi Valley, efforts have been made to confine the mighty flood of the Mississippi within its channel by means of levees, or dikes of earthwork. Owing to the sinuosities in the ever changing bed of the stream, the Mississippi washes the western boundary of the State for a distance of 500 miles. From the standpoint of protec- tion against the overflow of flood waters, this distance constitutes the "danger line" of the State of Mississippi. The river has been likened, with its tributaries, to a huge funnel, with a small tapering spout. It drains a total area of 1,240,038 square miles, or nearly. 800,000,000 acres. The spout of the funnel is really only half a spout, open at the upper half and semi-cylindrical at the bottom. which permits the flood waters to escape freely over the sides. The Yazoo basin of Mississippi is one of the largest basins in the valley of the great river. It has a length of 190 miles and a width of more than 50. Its area is 6,650 square miles, all of which is subject to overflow except a narrow ridge along the upper Yazoo. Lower down are 278 square miles of alluvial lands in the Homochitto basin, making about 7,000 square miles in the State subject to inundation.
The necessity of protecting this great area of over 4,250,000 acres of rich land, extending along the river front for 340 miles, from the annual visitation of flood waters through a system of levees or dikes is of prime importance to the State of Mississippi. Scien- tists, engineers and governments, for more than a century, have sought the proper solution of the Mississippi river problem. This problem has been all the more difficult, when it is borne in mind that below the junction of the Ohio, for more than 1,100 miles, the great river sweeps around a succession of great bends, with a deep, wide and rapid current of five or six miles an hour during the floods. Its surface is nearly on a level with the alluvial banks, which continually yield more or less to the power of the stream. In all this distance are no hills or mountains and only a few lone bluffs, and much of the flood area is from five to ten feet below the level of the river banks. Indeed, the peculiarity of the immediate banks of the river being higher than the alluvial plain, is charac- teristic of the whole course of the lower Mississippi. In extreme floods, when not protected by levees, these low grounds were cov- ered by the redundant waters nearly to the level of the river surface. As the surface of the river approached the high water mark the water escaped in a thousand places, through "low banks, outlet bayous, sloughs, or crevasses, becoming an immense forest lake and enclosing thousands of islands and ridges of alluvion only a few feet above the water level." No wonder the minds of men were early directed toward the prevention of these recurring overflows, and the protection of the rich arable lands. The period of floods in the lower Mississippi varies from four to nine months. It
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generally commences in December or January and lasts until June or July.
The extreme rise and fall of the Mississippi varies greatly at different points. It is greatest between the Ohio and Lake Prov- idence, one hundred and thirty-five miles below the mouth of the Arkansas. It is least from the mouth up to New Orleans.
A close study of the records shows that extraordinary floods have occurred on the Mississippi during the following years: 1782, 1797; 1809, 1815, 1823, 1828, 1844, 1849-51, 1858-59, 1862, 1874, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1897, 1899, and 1903. Quot- ing from the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society for 1904, p. 353, we read "The floods of March and April, 1903, which occurred in the lower Ohio and Mississippi, were notable because of the unprecedentedly high stages which occurred in the latter river. The stages of the water were, with a few exceptions, great- er than any before known from Memphis to the Passes, exceeding the previous highest stages (principally those of 1897) from 0.9 feet at New Orleans to 2.8 feet at Memphis. Where the crest stage was below the maximum stage of 1897 the deficiency was usu- ally due to crevasses in the levees." Speaking of the great floods of 1882, 1897, and 1903 the report goes on to say: "At Memphis the river was above the danger line in 1903 for 54 days, as against 65 and 53 days in 1882 and 1897 respectively, but it remained at 38 feet or higher for 13 days, and at 40 feet for two days in 1903; while in 1882 and 1897 the highest stages were 35.2 and 37.1 feet respectively. At New Orleans the river was at or above the danger line (16) feet in 1882 for six days, with a maximum stage of 16.2 feet ; in 1897 it was at or above the danger line for 75 days, and at 19 feet or more for 29 days, with a maximum stage of 19.5 feet ; while in 1903 it was at or above the danger line for 85 days, and at or above 19 feet for 43 days, with a maximum stage of 20.4 feet. The conclusion is that the causes of these differences in the three floods in the lower Mississippi river is to be found in the restrain- ing influence of the levees, which have been in course of construc- tion for many years, and especially during the last ten years. These new levees, except where crevasses occurred, served to con- fine the flood to the immediate channel of the river, and consequent- ly an abnormal increase in the height of the flood crest was inevita- ble. The more levees are built, and the more they are improved and strengthened, the higher the stages become."
6,820 square miles of territory was inundated in 1903, 13,580 square miles in 1897, and prior to 1897 the greatest extent was 29,970 square miles. While it has cost much to strengthen and repair the levees of late years, the flood losses have been compar- atively insignificant as contrasted with the amount of property saved.
In Gould's History of River Navigation is found this description of the first levee on the Mississippi river: "The water of 1718 was much higher and interfered seriously with the men laying the foun- dations of New Orleans, they being compelled to stop work and
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devote themselves to the construction of a rude levee in front of the town and for some distance above it, which sufficed to keep it clear of water. This was the first levee in Louisiana, and was constructed under the auspices of Sieur LeBlonde de la Tour chief of the engineers of the colony and a knight of St. Louis. This levee was merely a temporary one, but answered its purpose. It was worked on each successive year, raised and strengthened from time to time, being finally completed under Perrier in 1727. It then presented an 18-foot crown and 60-foot base, and was 5,400 feet, or slightly over a mile, in length. This was more than the city front and was ample to protect it." The levees were gradually extended both above and below the city, experience from disas- trous floods like that of 1782 having convinced the early inhabitants on the lower Mississippi of their necessity and efficacy. The total length of levees in Louisiana in 1812 was 340 miles, built at an estimated cost of $6,500,000. A big sum for a young country.
Meanwhile few levees had been built in the Territory of Mis- sissippi. Governor Sargent in his notes, declares that the inhab- itants of the Natchez District could not understand the flood of 1809, which destroyed many of their crops. It was thought by many that the Great Lakes had forced an outlet into the upper Mississippi and were pouring down on them. In 1828 the line of levees extended from New Orleans to Red River Landing, a dis- tance of 195 miles, and for 65 miles below the city. Above Red river they were in an unfinished state to Napoleon. From 1828 to 1844 they were gradually extended on the west bank to the mouth of the Arkansas, and there were also by this time many miles of levees on the Yazoo front, though they were by no means continuous. Above Napoleon, little had been done in the way of levee building. Those tracts in the delta that were above the level of ordinary flood were promptly settled, in spite of great dangers to health. Hence the region produced 39,000 bales of cot- ton in 1840. In 1850, there yet being no levees, the product was 42,000 bales.
Throughout the great speculative period of 1832 to 1844 the dis- mal swamps of the river valley were left in the hands of the gov- ernment, which offered them in vain at $1.25 an acre. "The idea of a levee had not been considered. The country was regarded as valueless. Even as late as 1848, some of the intelligent men in the State regarded a levee upon the Mississippi, looking to the re- clamation of the whole country, as impracticable, the idea as utopian." (Alcorn report.) But in eight years all this was changed, prospectively at least.
The Memphis river convention of 1845 made an earnest appeal to the United States to grant the planters assistance in the matter of levee building, without which, it was declared, the settlement of the lower Mississippi Valley could not go on successfully. The planters had expended millions in building dikes, and it was pointed out that with more levees millions of acres of fertile lands could
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be reclaimed. It was proposed that these flooded lands, still un- sold, should be given to the States to aid in levee building and in reclaiming them. As a result of this appeal, a survey of the Mis- sissippi was authorized by congress to ascertain the best method of reclaiming these alluvial lands, and the same year it also gave assistance for the first time in constructing levees.
Gov. Brown in 1846 reported that a levee had been surveyed and recommended by the State topographical engineer from the Tennessee line to the mouth of the Yazoo, in 1844, and the cost estimated at about $90,000. It was hoped that congress would donate alternate sections of unsold lands to help in doing this work. It was beyond the resources of the State at that time.
It was in the administration of Zachary Taylor, (1849-50), him -. self a Mississippi planter, that the first resolutions were adopted, by the United States senate, directing a survey of the river, to as- certain the best method of reclaiming the alluvial lands. The movement thus begun, resulted after many years, in the report of Chief Engineers Humphreys and Abbott that the levee system was the only method.
In 1849, Congress donated to Louisiana to "aid in constructing the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamps and over- flowed lands there, the whole of these swamps and overflowed lands which may be, or are found unfit for cultivation," and by the act of 1850 extended the grant so as to give to the several States all swamp and overflowed lands, within their limits, remaining unsold, and directed that "the proceeds of said lands, whether from sale or direct appropriation in kind, shall be applied exclusively, as far as necessary, to the reclaiming of said lands by means of levees and drains." This action by the Federal government was based on the broad ground of an enlarged public policy, valuable public as well as private interests being thereby subserved, and im- portant sanitary ends secured. The assistance thus given by the Federal Government gave a great impetus to levee building, and the next ten years were the most active and successful in reclaiming the alluvial region below the mouth of the Ohio. The largest recipients of the bounty of the General Government were the three river States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, which have received 18,545,270 acres of swamp overflowed lands.
The Mississippi legislature enacted a law putting levee work under the control of a commission in each river county. In 1854 J. L. Alcorn proposed a system of general superintendence, and this being adopted, he was appointed president of the superior board of levee commissioners. He reported in 1856 that the work had progressed so that much land theretofore worthless was sell- ing at $20 an acre. State lands and school lands shared in the general appreciation, and were being eagerly sought by purchasers.
In January, 1856, there had been completed 9 miles of levee in DeSoto, 36 in Tunica, 52 in Coahoma, 83 in Bolivar, 50 in Issa- quena ; Washington made no report. The incomplete figures indi-
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cate an expenditure of about three quarters of a million in cash and as much more in script.
The law of 1858 provided for a tax paying district to support the work, and though it "did not embrace the entire territory which equity and good conscience demanded," yet a start was made on the true principle. The tax levied was fifty cents per acre, an- nually for five years, but this fund from the river counties was for three years withheld from the general board to be used in paying the debts of the local boards. At the expiration of the three years, bonds to the amount of $500,000 were authorized to be sold. Pres- ident Alcorn did not regard the financial provision as adequate. Tunica county alone had in 1858 a debt of $150,000 in levee script, drawing interest at 10%. By reason of local prejudice the en- forcement of the law was embarrassed by litigation, and it became impossible to sell the bonds, and he was helped out by a special tax of twenty-five cents an acre in the river front counties. At the beginning of 1860 he had under contract about $750,000 worth of work, including the crevasses of 1859, one of which occasioned an expense of $50,000 for repairs in the levee. But a recent opinion of Judge Henry, of Yazoo, that the law of 1858 was entirely uncon- stitutional, made it doubtful if much could be done.
Meanwhile the floods of 1858 and 1859 had demonstrated that without levees the last vestige of civilization would be driven from the Yazoo-Mississippi bottom. While the people of the delta were murmuring at a thirty-five cents tax, they were paying across the river 60 to 80 cents, and in Louisiana, $2.20. Alcorn said that because of the levee work, since 1850, the Chickasaw school fund had sold 130,000 acres for $6 an acre, and the State had been able to sell 500,000 acres of internal improvement land and apply the proceeds to railroad building.
"At the outbreak of hostilities 310 miles of continuous levees stretched from the base of the hills near the Tennessee line to Brunswick landing in Warren county, protecting from overflows the Yazoo basin comprising 4,000,000 acres of as fertile land as there is on the globe, and constituting the heart of the cotton zone of the United States. Although sparsely settled, this region in 1860 produced 220,000 bales of cotton and 2,500,000 bushels of corn. During the progress of hostilities the levees which protected it were cut in many places by one or the other of the contending armies. The floods of 1867 completed the destruction." (Garner). The old levees were of an average height of 8 to 10 feet and a width, at the base, of from 50 to 75 feet; the width of the crown being somewhat less than the height. Of course some were of much greater size. The great levee at Yazoo Pass was, for a dis- tance of half a mile, 28 feet high and at some points 38 feet, and in places nearly if not quite 300 feet broad at its base. In view of the manner in which most of the levees were built before the war- mainly by slave labor-it is difficult to ascertain the cost of these dikes up to that period. It has been estimated that the total cost
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of all the levees in the river States, from the beginning of levee building to 1862 was as follows:
Louisiana $25,000,000
Mississippi 14,750,000
Arkansas 1,200,000
Missouri 1,640,000
Other States
560,000
Total
$43,150,000
"Under the French rule, and for a long period thereafter, the levees were built and maintained by the front proprietors. At a later date the police juné, corresponding to the county commis- sioners in other States, took charge of the levees in Louisiana; but in time of danger the riparian proprietors, occupying alluvial lands within 7 miles of the river, were compelled to lend a helping hand. When a crevasse was threatened the planters and farmers met and decided on the line of action to be pursued. Each gave the labor of a number of his slaves, each in accordance with his means." (Internal Commerce of the U. S.)
Land purchasers in the delta had used their lands as security to borrow money for improvement. When the war came on the delta inhabitants found themselves, generally, without further re- sources and in debt to capitalists to the limit of their productive capacity. Upon the cutting of the levees, the situation re- verted to the former one, planting of the high places, and in ad- dition the planters were crushed hopelessly under debt and the resources of government land were exhausted. This condition was estimated to mean an annual deficit in the income of the people of $8,000,000.
In the constitutional convention of 1865 Judge Yerger proposed a commission of four to confer with the authorities at Washington regarding the rebuilding of the levees. The negroes, now learning to work for wages, declined to take the risk of wages or shares on plantations subject to overflow. The United States government took some action to restore the levees and it was proposed in 1866 to use the negro troops for that purpose.
A board of levee commissioners for Bolivar, Washington and Issaquena counties was created by act of November 27, 1865, which expended up to October 1, 1870, $1,300,000 in the reconstruction of the levees. To provide funds bonds were issued to the amount of $1,288,000, and $1,238,000 taxes were collected to retire the bonds. The act limited the issue of bonds to $1,000,000, but emer- gency in the work demanded the overissue, which was legalized by the legislature. Unfortunately, the Cammack levee, on which had been expended $73,000, was swept away in 1870.
The last session of the legislature in the administration of Gov- ernor Humphreys passed an act (February, 1867) to create the "general levee board" of the State, of not less than five members,
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to take charge of rebuilding the levees. They were authorized to borrow $6,000,000 of the United States government for that purpose and issue bonds. An annual tax of 20 cents per acre was levied in the counties to be benefited, for a period of twenty years. The legis- lature of 1870 petitioned the United States congress to again come to the aid of Mississippi by an appropriation of $2,000,000 and 5,000,000 acres of land.
The legislature of 1871 provided for a board of levee commis- sioners for District No. 1, Tunica, Coahoma, Tallahatchie, Panola and De Soto, with an elaborate code of procedure. At the same time the act of 1858 was amended so that one commissioner should take the place of the board under that act, for the purpose of liquidating liabilities incurred prior to January, 1862. 3
Bonds were authorized to the amount of $1,000,000, and sold, and a tax levied for 12 years on the lands of the district to pay the same. Later, the board was abolished, but large areas of land were acquired by the board for non-payment of taxes. The State also acquired many acres in the same region for non-payment of State taxes. The act of 1878 provided that the bonds of the dis- trict should be receivable in redemption of lands. An act of 1884 was construed by the auditor's department to apply in the re- demption both from State and Levee taxes, and permitted the con- tinued use of these bonds in payment of delinquent taxes by pur- chasers; but in 1891 the supreme court ruled, in the case of Wynn vs. Auditor, that the law of 1884 repealed the law of 1878, and sales made for bonds thereafter were void.
By an act of 1877 the legislature attempted to compel the hold- ers of levee bonds to submit to a forced reduction in the amount due on their bonds; but the supreme court held this unconstitu- tional, and declared that the lands forfeited for levee taxes were absolute property of the levee board for the benefit of the bond- holders (Stone's message, 1878). Under an act of 1882, the liqui- dating commissioners reported sufficient funds on hand to pay off the entire levee debt, but by injunction they were prevented from paying out $37,000 collected from the Memphis & Vicksburg rail- road.
June 28, 1879, an act of Congress provided for a permanent com- mission for the improvement of the river and protection of lands. The first national commission was composed of Benjamin Harri- son, James B. Eads and B. Morton Harrod, with three officers from the engineer corps of the army, Gillmore, Comstock and Suter, and one representative of the Coast survey. Their preliminary re- port in 1880 favored the levee system as a valuable adjunct of the jetty system for the purpose of improving navigation and keeping the river under some sort of control. A committee of Congress for the first time visited the Mississippi river, studying it closely from Vicksburg down, in 1880.
An Inter-State Levee convention was held at Vicksburg in Oc- tober, 1883. In 1884 an act of the legislature created the Board of Levee Commissioners in Yazoo-Mississippi delta, to protect
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the country flooded by the breaking of the levees in the floods of 1882 and 1883, and which was largely under water when the act was passed. The first board was composed of C. L. Robinson and C. C. Crews for Tunica county, Thomas W. White for DeSoto, J. M. Heathman for Sunflower, B. W. Sturdivant for Tallahatchie, B. S. Ricks for Yazoo, W. H. Stovall and J. F. Townsend for Coahoma, P. S. Mayre for Leflore, W. A. Turner for Quitman, and Thomas McGehee for the M. & V. railroad. The board sold bonds to raise money, and began levee repairing and building in the fall of 1884, prosecuting the work with so much vigor that there was again an unbroken river wall in 1886. But it was seen that higher and more substantial levees were necessary.
The State makes provision for the continuance of its levee system by Article XI in the Constitution of 1890, which declares, Sec. 227, "A levee system shall be maintained in the State as provided in this article."
"Sec. 228. The division heretofore made by the legislature of the alluvial land of the State into two districts, viz: The Yazoo Delta Levee District, and the Mississippi Levee District, as shown by the laws creating the same, and the amendments thereto, is hereby recognized, and said districts shall so remain until changed by law: but the legislature may hereafter add to either of said districts any other alluvial land in the State.
"Sec. 229. There shall be a board of levee commissioners for the Yazoo-Delta Levee District, which shall consist of two members from each of the counties of Coahoma and Tunica, and one mem- ber from each of the remaining counties or parts of counties, now or hereafter embraced within the limits of said district, and the governor may appoint a stockholder in the Louisville, New Or- leans and Texas Railway Company as an additional commissioner; and there shall also be a board of levee commissioners for the Mississippi Levee District, which shall consist of two members from each of the counties of Bolivar and Washington, and one from each of the counties of Issaquena and Sharkey. In the event of the formation of a new county or counties out of the ter- ritory embraced in either or both of the said levee districts, such new counties shall each be entitled to representation and member- ship in the proper board or boards."
In the early spring of 1890 the levees gave way in several places, and a large part of the delta was inundated, but there was no loss of life and the damage was not serious. The United States government put several hundred tents and a large quantity of rations at the disposal of the governor. There was a flood in 1891. but it was not serious. The Palmyra district, including Palmyra island in Warren county, was created in 1896. The Yazoo-Chick- asaw levee district was created in 1898. Governor McLaurin esti- mated in 1898 that the delta counties had expended more than $13,000,000 in levees.
At the congressional election in 1898 a constitutional amendment authorizing the levee commissioners to cede rights of way, and
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levees, and maintenance, management and control thereof to the United States, was voted upon, the result being 14,500 for ; 5,000 against. Total general vote, 27,378.
The levee organization in 1905 is as follows: Yazoo-Mississippi Delta levee district commission : H. H. Hopson and O. H. John- son, Coahoma county ; Will Polk and S. A. Withers, Tunica; J. R. Baird, Sunflower; W. S. Barry, Leflore; R. V. Powers, Yazoo; D. G. Pepper, Holmes; L. Marks, Quitman; W. P. Conner, De Soto; George M. Murphy, Tallahatchie; M. Gillease, Y. & M. V. railroad company. Mississippi Levee district commission: J. C. Brooks, Bolivar; J. T. Atterbury, Washington; W. H. Barnard, Sharkey ; J. S. Walker, Washington ; W. H. Fitzgerald, Washing -. ton. Palmyra levee district commission: L. Page, A. B. Curvil- lion, Robert Wade, W. S. Lovell, A. M. Fultz. Tallahatchie river levee district: C. B. Vance, J. S. Goff, W. W. Perkins, Aaron Greenwall, L. H. Shuford.
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