History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 47

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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To guard against imposition the committee only distributed relief through regu- larly established organizations and agencies, and at all times declined to make any allowance to individuals. The charitable organizations of the city placed them- selves at the service of the committee, and through them the work of relief was carried on with a zeal and intelligence that protected the fund from impostors, and efficiently contributed to the succor of all persons found worthy of relief.

The care of the distressed people of Cumminsville (Twenty-fifth ward), which the flood had converted into a vast lake, was delegated to a citizens' committee com- posed of three gentlemen, and they addressed themselves to the relief of the suffer- ing with entire devotion, and accomplished their work to the satisfaction of the Relief Committee.

The Relief Committee, following the precedent established during the flood of 1883, decided that no part of the contributions received from places outside of Cin- cinnati should be applied to the relief of persons living in the city, but that any such contributions which might be intrusted to the committee should be distributed for the relief of distress throughout the Ohio Valley outside of Cincinnati. That this should be thoroughly understood the committee gave public notice of its decis- ion, and offering to take charge of any contributions that might be sent it for distri- bution at outside points. In response to this notice contributions in money to the amount of $97, 751.22-including $20,315.25 from the Ohio State Relief Commis- sion -- were received by the committee from sources outside of Cincinnati, and the total amount thus received was distributed throughout the entire length of the Ohio Valley.

The condition of the people living on the shores of the river above Cincinnati was deplorable. Suddenly driven from their homes, and in many instances com- pelled to flee for their lives leaving their household necessities behind them, their situation was most distressing, and urgent appeals for assistance reached the com- mittee. As soon as a sufficient amount was received from outside sources to justify the expense of an independent expedition, the large steamer "Granite State" was chartered by the committee, loaded with supplies, and despatched on a mission of

305

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

mercy. The cost of the cargo, to the extent of $15,000, was defrayed by the Olio State Relief Commission; but the distribution of the proceeds of the amount con- tributed by the commission being necessarily confined to Ohio, Gen. A. Beckwith, representing the United States Government, also placed on board supplies to the value of $10,000, that both sides of the river might share in the distribution. The expedition was successful in its mission, and much suffering was relieved.

LIBERAL CONTRIBUTIONS.

To guard against deception the committee sent out special commissions to explore both sides of the river and ascertain the true condition of the sufferers. The Ohio Legislature, in accordance with the request of the Common Council, passed a law authorizing the city comptroller to borrow $50,000, to be expended for the relief of suffering in Cincinnati, upon the order of the tax commission. The commission instructed the comptroller to pay the amount authorized, or any part thereof, upon the order of the executive committee of the Relief Committee.

The unexampled rise of the water entailed such widespread distress among the poor of the city, that the demands for relief exceeded the ability of the committee to supply from the fund provided by the voluntary contributions of the citizens. To meet these demands, the executive committee called upon the comptroller for $25,000 of the city fund. This amount was received and placed in the Relief Fund. So judiciously was it used that upon the completion of the work, and the final adjustment of accounts, it was found that there was at the credit of the fund for the relief of Cincinnati an unexpended balance of $5,260.74, which was returned to the city.

Treasurer Dana in his report says that the amount received from local sources for the relief of Cincinnati was $96,680.12; amount contributed by persons not residents of Cincinnati, $97,751.22, making a total of $194,431.34.

The flood committee estimated the number of persons fed at the Sixth street. soup house, during the thirteen days it was in operation, at 65,000, and as many as 7,500 were fed in one day. This did not include all receiving relief, as there were many other stations where provisions and clothing were distributed.

Thomas J. Stephens, chairman of the military and police committee, reported that so long as the gas works continued to furnish light for the city, it was not, deemed necessary to increase the patrol by the appointment of specials. Gen. Hickenlooper's assurance that, until the river should reach 64 feet, the manufacture. of gas would continue, gave some hope that the extremity of darkness might be avoided; but when the steadily advancing flood marked 65 feet 12 inches on the gauge, the fires were put out and the supply of gas light ceased. Then it was that the committee called out the military. This action quieted the apprehension felt that the city was in danger from disorder and plunder. For eleven nights these soldiers were on duty, and greatly aided the police by partly relieving them of rou- tine patrol duty outside the submerged district. During the continuance of the flood the best of order was preserved and fewer thefts and deeds of violence were reported than usual. When the reservoirs were running low. in consequence of the big engines being stopped by the flood, the realization of this fact caused the utmost vigilance to be exercised on the part of the police and citizens, and as a consequence there were hardly any alarms of fire. Much of the distress and loss of valuable property in 1883 was due to the unprecedented inundation of that year, which covered territory never before reached, and which, in the opinion of old river men, was considered not possible.

The severity of this lesson was not overlooked by the people, and while the flood of 1884 was greater in extent, and many more persons were forced to vacate their houses, yet the loss of property and consequent distress was perhaps not more than in the preceding year. It was ascertained that 4,930 houses were inundated and

306

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

21,856 persons either compelled to vacate or reach their houses by boats. The work of the police, however, was arduous and required the most active kind of service. A large number of the relief boats were manned by the police and kept busy from daylight till dark, and regular patrol duty in boats, day and night, was continued throughout.

The inspection of all dangerous tenements in the flooded quarter was another duty of the police, and in many cases it was found necessary to compel the vacation of such premises as were deemed unsafe. The only serious accident during all this time was the falling of a house on East Front street, whereby several lives were lost. After the water receded, an examination by the police resulted in the discovery of one hundred buildings that were deemed unsafe. The extraordinary expense in- curred by the police department amounted to $1,788.76, which was paid by the Relief Committee. The pay of the military while on duty, at the State allowance of $2.00 per day, amounted to $14,000. This sum, by Act of the Legislature, was ordered paid out of the fund appropriated by the State for the flood sufferers.

STAGES OF THE WATER.

In the report made by the Chamber of Commerce and the Common Council of Cincinnati, there is an elaborate table showing the stages of the river every hour from February 1st to the 29th, 1884, inclusive, together with a comparative table of the stage of the water for the same days in 1883. It is of exceeding great value to those who desire accurate information, hourly, of the gradual rise and fall of the river during those memorable floods. From that table the following has been com- piled showing the stages of the water during each day at noon of those months:

1883, FT. IN.

1884.

1883.

1884.

FT. IN.

Feb. 1, noon.

38 41/2

Feb.16, noon

41%

68 51

.28

- 45 101%

17,

.62

212

.30

20,

.57

.42

73/4

22,

.53

212

.. 52

615

23,

.49

.57

816

24,

.45

.59

64 1012

25,

.42

11,

.60

234

26,

12,

.63

61/4

312

27,

.34

13,

.64

11%

69 10

28,

31 10

14,

.65

11%

15,

134

.27

413

18,

.60

513

.30

49 101%

19,

.59

21,

.55 10

55 10

10,

29,

At 4 A. M. February 15, 1883, the water was at its greatest height, 66 feet 4 inches. At noon, however, it had declined 24 inches, as shown above.

At 8 A. M., February 14, 1884, the water reached 71 feet and remained at those fig- ures till 10 A. M., two hours, when it gained } of an inch. It remained at this figure till 11:30, when another } was added, making 71 feet } inch. At noon another quarter was gained, and the maximum, 71 feet & of an inch, was reached. It stood at these figures till 1 P. M., when } of an inch was lost. From this hour till 6:30 it stood at 71 feet } an inch. At 7 P. M., it had fallen to 71 feet, and at midnight it was down to 70 feet 10 inches. From that hour the decline was slow until noon of the next day, when it receded more rapidly.

PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE FLOOD.

The great floods of 1883 and 1884 seemed to be forerunners of the deluge which destroyed Johnstown in 1889, caused the loss of more than 3,000 lives by drowning, and the inundation of the upper valleys of the Susquehanna on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies. Physically considered these great floods bear peculiar relations.

307

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

R. B. Stephenson, in his report to the Chamber of Commerce, says that the causes which combined to produce the flood of 1884 were geographical, topographical and meteorological. The Alleghany, with its sources and tributaries, drains an area of 13,000 square miles; the Youghiogheny and its tributaries, 2,100 square miles, and of the Monongahela and its other tributaries, 4, 900 square miles, making the total water shed of the Monongahela 7,000 square miles, which, added to that of the Allegheny, gives a grand total area of 20,000 square miles drained by the sources of the Ohio river. These waters were angmented below, during the first week of Feb- ruary, 1884, by the Muskingum river and tributaries draining the southwestern por- tion of Ohio; the little Kanawha river, draining the western slopes of West Virginia; the Elk river, supplied by springs on the south side of Rich mountain, and rising and spreading out until it became navigable eighty miles for steamboats, and empty- ing, at Charleston, into the Kanawha, which, with its tributaries, drains the entire southern half of West Virginia; and yet below these there were added to the waters of the Ohio those of the Guyandotte, Big Sandy, Little Guyandotte, Licking, Ken- tucky, Green, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers, on the south side, and the Scioto, Little Miami, Great Miami, White, and Wabash rivers, on the north side, nearly all being navigable rivers, and the hundreds of streams tributary to these, as well as many small streams that empty directly into the Ohio, on both sides.

WHEN THE CAUSES BEGAN.

The meteorological causes, says Mr. Stephenson, began on the 14th day of December, 1883, when the winter's first fall of snow occurred in the Ohio Valley, less than one inch in depth at Cincinnati, where the stage of the river was 10 feet 7 inches on that day, a minimum to which it did not again decline for a period of six months or more. To the snow on the date named, was added rainfall to the depth of sixteen- hundredths of an inch. Light snows fell on the 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th of December, followed by a heavier snow on the 20th, and twelve hours of snow on the 22nd, the fall of the day last indicated measuring 62 inches in depth. The snow then on the ground was partly removed and partly more closely packed by a fall of sleet and rain on the 23d that equalled a rainfall of 2.57 inches, after which the temperature became so cold that ice appeared in the river the following day, which disappeared on the 28th, under the influence of light rains which fell on the 27th. Light rains, but enough to carry much of the snow into the river, and solidify that which remained on the ground, fell also on the 30th and 31st. The total fall of snow, sleet and rain, during the month of December, reduced to rainfall, was 5.61 inches. . The highest stage of the river during the month was 493 feet, on the 28th, when it began to decline.

Light snows were frequent and a cold temperature prevailed from the 1st to the 14th of January, 1884, when a heavy snow set in at 5 P. M., continuing until the following day; and on the 19th there was another light fall of snow. These alter- nated with sleet and rain, and the temperature varied, during the last five days, between zero and 60 degrees above. The first half of the month was generally cold, but there were slight variations in the weather conditions. These variations and other influences were sufficient to cause the river to fall, first, from 49} feet on December 28, to 15 feet 5 inches on January 13, then rise to 24 feet 1 inch on the 19th, then fall to 15 feet 9 inches on the 29th, and rise again to 31 feet 3 inches on the 31st, when the flood of 1884 properly began. The 30th of January found upon the ground much of the previous fall of 18 inches to 4 feet of solidified snow, packed upon the hills and mountains and valleys of the Ohio river and its tributaries, and the smaller streams tributary to the latter. The depth of snow that fell at Cincinnati during the month of January was 10 inches, and much more had fallen at other localities that would affect the condition of the river. The rainfall of the month was 1.23 inches. The snow, sleet and rain, reduced to rainfall, was

308

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

2.21 inches. One rain followed another from the 30th of January to the 13th of February, which affected the river accordingly.

CLOSING DAYS OF JANUARY.

During the two or three closing days of January a warm temperature spread. itself over a territory represented by the length of the Ohio river, but events in, March showed that it did not extend more than one hundred miles on either side of the same, nor up the Allegheny Valley, nor up the tributaries on the east side of the- Monongahela, else the magnitude of the flood of 1884 would have been much greater. On the 29th there was a general rain over the southern half of the water-shed here- tofore described, but it missed the Allegheny drainage, the snow being scarcely dis- turbed, and the ice remained firm in the Allegheny and Youghiogheny rivers and their tributaries. The rain and warm weather continued up the Monongahela. and some of its contributaries, and that river continued to rise, while simultaneously all tributaries of the Ohio below poured out floods of water, not all, however, from their- headwaters. But restricted as was the territory covered by the warm temperature, which at Cincinnati was 59 degrees at 2:30 P. M. of January 31, it was fraught with grave consequences. The ice, which had held firm in the Youghiogheny river- throughout the winter, was, on that day, partially broken up, and while it did not pass into the Monongahela until the 5th, it piled up in its own bed, caused adjacent. territory to be overflowed by back water, and destroyed much property. The Monongahela rose on January 31 to a depth of 29 feet at Brownsville, and 21 feet at Pittsburgh, and much coal property was carried away.

The ice in the Muskingum and Little Kanawha rivers gave way on the same day, and both of those tributaries poured their floods into the Ohio, the stage of the Ohio at Marietta being 21 feet, and at Parkersburg 24 feet. Freshets in the Elk river and Paint creek caused the Kanawha river to swell to 19 feet at Charleston on January 31, and this water was being added to that in the Ohio at Point Pleasant during the 24 hours that the latter rose 12 feet at Catlettsburg, the result of a flood in the Big Sandy, from Louisa to the mouth. The Scioto river also poured out strong, causing the Ohio to swell eight inches per hour at Portsmouth, where the stage on January 31 was thirty feet.

It will be observed that at all of the points named above on the Ohio river the rises were simultaneous, being due to local streams and local causes alone. This was also the case at Cincinnati, where the river rose 12} feet during the same 24 hours, the Little Miami river and smaller streams on its south side pouring into it their floods of water. The stage of the Licking at Butler Station was 212 feet, and while its flood was being emptied into the Ohio, the water was prevented from passing off so rapidly by the strong cross-currents at points below, where the Great Miami river on the north side, and the Kentucky river on the south side, formed a barrier to its swift progress. The latter river was rising three inches per hour at Frankfort, where the stage of water reported was 22 feet, and all streams that empty into the Ohio below Carrollton were also rising.

FEBRUARY OPENS.

With a change to cold weather during the night, the month of January closed, and the memorable February opened with the mercury 30 degrees lower than on the previous day; but, notwithstanding this, the Ohio, Licking and Little Miami rivers continued to rise. The Allegheny was swelling some, but the river was falling at Pittsburgh, and all the upper tributaries had ceased to rise, except the Scioto, and the ' Kentucky river was falling at Frankfort. The Ohio continued to rise from Steubenville to Portsmouth, the rise at the latter place being six inches per hour, and the stage of the river there had reached 43 feet. The further rise at Cincinnati during the 24 hours ending at 6 P. M. of February Ist was 7 feet 10 inches, and at the hour named the stage of the river was 40 feet 52 inches.

309

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

During the next two days no rain fell in the Ohio Valley, and the Licking river was falling. The Ohio was falling on February 3d from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Big Sandy, and the decline extended on the 4th to Portsmouth, where the stage of water had on the previous day reached 47 feet. But the river continued to rise steadily and rapidly at Cincinnati, having entered the buildings at the foot of Main and Walnut streets on the morning of the 2d, and those at the foot of Broadway on the same day, the river's upward tendency being aided by the arrival of waters from upper tributaries in quick succession until it reached 49 feet 113 inches on the 4th at 7 A. M., when it declined so perceptibly that at 2 P. M. the surface of the water was one inch lower; but between 2 and 3 p. M. there was a heavy fall of rain that carried much of the solidified snow into the river and local tributaries, and a rise again set in that did not cease until noon of the 14th, when it culminated in the highest stage of water at the mouth of the Licking river that had ever been seen at that point by an enlightened people. The rainfall of the 4th amounted to 1.35 inches, and the temperature had risen to 62 degrees. A dense fog hung in the bot- toms at 3 P. M. - so dense that artificial light was necessary in all buildings south of Third street. Rain was falling at all points above, and the Licking and Little Miami rivers were again rising, and also the Monongahela. At midnight the stars appeared, but the river continued to rise nearly two inches per hour, and before daylight all buildings fronting on the river, between the suspension bridge and Main street, and between Ludlow street and Broadway, had been invaded by the water, the advance being due to local causes.

OMINOUS SIGNS. D

The conditions of February 5th were such that a few close observers of river phenomena believed that in them existed the germs of a flood greater than that of the previous February, but no alarm was excited among the mass of the people, although the bottoms of Cincinnati were covered by water, and Lawrenceburg and Aurora, Ind., were partially submerged. The temperature at Cincinnati ranged from 49 to 62 degrees, while the rainfall of the day was 1.56 inches, and it was equally as much at points above on the Ohio river and along its tributaries. The rainfall of the first five days of February, 1884, was 1.11 inches more than during the first five days of the previous February. More rain had fallen between 6:30 A. M. of the 4th and 2:30 P. M. of the 5th, than fell during the entire four days that immediately preceded the same stage of water on February 8, 1883. The river was 20 feet and one-half inch higher than at the same time of the previous year, and there had been but nine years in which the stage of the water exceeded that at mid- night of the 5th.

The Licking river was rising 12 inches per hour at Cynthiana and Boston Station, with 18 feet of water at the latter place; the Ohio was again rising at Portsmouth, with 45 feet 10 inches of water; there had again been heavy rains up the Big Sandy, and that river was exhibiting the effects; the New river had swelled to six feet at Hinton, and was yet rising, while the Kanawha was already rising, with 15 feet of water at Charleston, and 23 feet at Raymond City. Rain was causing the Muskin- gum to pour out again, and the rise of the Ohio at Marietta was at the rate of four inches per hour. Rain had fallen constantly 24 hours at Pittsburgh, and there the stage of the river was 18 feet and rising, and at Wheeling 26 feet and rising. The ice poured out of the Youghiogheny river and into the Monongahela, carrying with it houses, stables and other property. The stage of the Monongahela at Greensboro was 263 feet, and at Brownsville 24} feet, and it was rising at both places, with rain yet falling. The Allegheny had risen to 10 feet at Oil City, and was yet rising, and rain falling. The Kentucky river, which, when it pours into the Ohio, prevents the water of the latter from passing off freely, and is thus a factor in producing high water at Cincinnati, was on a stand at 19 feet at Frankfort, but a heavy rain was falling.

310

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

The opinion began to prevail on the 7th, and was strengthened as the day advanced, that all of the prompt measures for relief that had been adopted at Cin- cinnati were not justified by the actual situation. The temperature became cooler, the mercury ranging from 40 to 63 degrees; and although the aggregate of rainfall since the river began to rise was five inches, the light sprinkle of rain that fell on the 7th amounted to only twenty-three hundredths of an inch. The river came to a stand several times, when its stage was 61 feet 92 inches.

At Steubenville the river reached its maximum at 3 P. M. on the 7th, 49 feet, which was two feet higher than in 1832, the highest previous flood. At Maysville the water was yet 62 feet below the high-water mark of 1883, but it was rising two inches per hour.

HALF HOURLY BULLETINS.

At Cincinnati the water had covered Second street at Vine, Walnut and Main streets, and the interest in the condition of the rivers had become so universal that the superintendent of the Chamber of Commerce not only caused half-hourly bul- letins of the stage of the river at Cincinnati to be posted, but also organized a thorough system of intelligence by telegraph, embracing such points on the Ohio. and other rivers as would affect the stage of the river at Cincinnati. So full were the reports thus obtained that at no time during the flood was he asked to secure others. The doors of the Chamber of Commerce were thrown open to the public from early morning till midnight, that none might be uninformed of the situation. At Cincinnati the gas-works were submerged at noon when the stage of the water was 62 feet 62 inches.

The Ohio reached its maximum at Marietta at 6 o'clock in the morning, being 3 feet 2 inches higher than in 1832, and at 5 P. M. it was falling at the rate of four inches per hour. The highest stage reached at Parkersburg was 53 feet 3 inches on the same day. The Licking river continued to fall, with 11} feet of water at Boston Station, when the weather was cooler, but cloudy. The conditions were favorable to an early decline at Cincinnati, where the rainfall of the day amounted to only six-hundredths of an inch; the wind shifted from the southwest to the north- west, and the mercury fell from 57 to 30 degrees during the day. But the con- ditions were such at points on the Ohio below Marietta, and in the Kanawha Valley, that rendered it almost certain by noon that all previous flood visitations at Cin- cinnati were to be eclipsed. The river swelled more than a half inch per hour throughout the day. At 9 A. M. it reached 63 feet 7 inches, the high water mark of December 17, 1847, and by midnight it covered 64 feet 3 inches, the high-water mark of February 18, 1832. The Covington gas-works had ceased to supply light, and 8,000 people were homeless. New Richmond was all under water, and the people of California, Ohio, were suffering for food. At Ripley, yet farther up the river, the water reached the mark of 1883 at.3 P. M., and at 9 P. M. it was 23 inches higher and rising one inch per hour. At Maysville it reached the mark of 1883 at 10 A. M., and at 3 P. M. was within three inches of that of 1832. The conditions above there were yet more alarming. Point Pleasant was entirely inundated, there being four feetof water in parts of the town that had escaped the flood of 1883, and the back water from the Ohio extended up the Kanawha fifty miles, inundating all the farms, houses and villages in the valley, and entirely wrecking the track of the Ohio Central railroad. The width of the Kanawha varied from three to five miles. At Gallipolis the Ohio was 6 feet 11 inches higher than in 1883, and five feet higher than in 1832, and was still rising one inch per hour. At Catlettsburgh rain was falling in torrents at 5 P. M. and the Ohio was three feet higher than in 1883, the water extending back six squares from the river, submerging all houses to the hillside. The water at Portsmouth was five feet higher than in 1883. At. Ripley the water was 22 inches higher than in 1883, and 11 inches higher than in

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 47

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592