where they were should they come down in 

 that i)art of tlie country witli strangle people 

 that day. Well, we did not give tlie people any 

 chance to talk to us and tlie\' never boutrlit the 

 farm. 



Feb. 25, 1912.— We had one of the rains that 

 you read about and the whole country seemed 

 to be afloat. 



March 23, 1912. — Paper.s over tlie country be- 



Back water from the Mississippi River, 12 Miles 

 South of Sikceston on the King's Highway. 



gan to note general high waters and from this 

 date on till near the last of April we were 

 much worried from this cause. On the 27th 

 of the month we went to New Madrid, the 

 county seat of New Madrid County, which is 

 situated on the banks of the Mississippi River 

 near the site of the other New Madrid that 



The Rapids. 



lippi^liver 

 the great earthquake in 1^1-12, and the water 

 had jost began to come up into the streets and 

 on the 30th it was three feet deep in the 

 streets, then on the 31st it was so high that 



traffic on tlie Frisco Railroad was stopped — all 

 but a little local traffic from Chaffee to Kewa- 

 nce. which condition existetl vmtil near the last 

 of April. On the 3d and 4th of April was doWi. 

 below Kewanee where the Ijack waters from 

 the Mississippi broke through the railroad grade 

 and never had I expected to see anything so 

 near like the rapids at Niagara Falls as I saw 

 here. We took Kodak views of it, one of which 

 is reproduced here, and it is much more pleas- 

 ure to look at this pictui'e now than it was the 

 real waters. You see we lived west of this 

 great Sikeston Ridge and thought we were high- 

 water-proof, but when it broke through here 

 and began to inundate this west swamp, we 

 dill not know so much about it. The water 

 v\'as also beginning to seep across the Ridge 

 in several other places farther north and while 

 it brought death, loss and disaster to the in- 

 habitants of the country that was protected by 

 the Reelfoot Lake levee on the other side of 

 the Mississifjpi River, yet it was a Godsend 

 to us when that levee broke, for the water 

 around New Madrid and to the east of us fell 

 six inches in the one night and gave us thp 

 relief that we had to have to keep us fron. 

 being drowned out. Friend, you may have rear? 

 of this FLOOD in the papers, or you may havo 

 had a friend or relative in this district, 

 but to you who never heard of it, should you 

 be contemplating buying property along this 

 great river, take my advice and be sure to live 

 a year either as a tenant or a hand in the 

 country wherein you expect to purchase before 

 you do, for it will give you a chance to learn 

 all about the country and its possibility of 

 overflowing and drowning you out before you 

 are tied up. 



March 24, 1911. — Our youngest 'boy had a chill 

 today and it took lots of hot water, covers 

 and Jamaica Ginger to warm him up. 



While this sandy land will stand a great 

 quantity of water and yet you can work it, yet 

 it seemed it would never let us get at our field 

 work this spring. I give you a list of the days 

 that it rained and they sure were a plenty. 

 March 2d, snow storm that was a snow storm. 

 March 5th, snow, high wind, etc. March 11th, 

 sleeted all night. March 12th, cold, drizzling 

 rain from northwest. March 14th, rained like 

 fury this day. March 1.5th, misting all day. 

 March 21st. cold rain from northwest with a 

 29 degree temperature, turned to sleet and ice. 

 March 23d, rained all afternoon. March 24th, 

 rained, turning to snow. March 28th, rained 

 all day. April 1st, rained all day. April 6th, 

 raining again. April 9th, raining. April 10th, 

 raining. April 12th, a heavy rain storm. April 

 13th, rained more today. April 15th, rained 

 and hailed some. April 17th, more rain. April 

 19th, more rain. April 21st, more rain. April 

 22d, rained hard in the night. April 25th. rain- 

 ing off and on since 2 p. m. April 26th, rained 

 awfully hard all night and very high wind. 

 April 28th, another very hard rain with sotne 

 hail. April 29th, a very hard rain last night; 

 there is a great amount of water on the ground. 

 We had no more hard rain from April 29th 

 until May 10th, but during all this time the 

 ground would no more than get so that we 

 thought we could plow when another rain and 

 we began to wonder if we were going to be 

 allowed to plant any crops at all. 



On the 15th of April our youngest boy had 

 another very hard chill. 



On the 2d of May worked some in our potato 

 patch, most of the time killing bugs. This is 

 certainly potato bug paradise, for the weed 

 known as "Bull Nettles" has a jelly leaf very 

 similar to a potato plant leaf, so, therefore, Mr. 

 Beetle is not entirely dependent on the potato 

 patches for the continuance of his family, and 

 it matters not where you make your potato 

 patch with reference to where it was last year 

 you will find that Mr. Potato Bug and family 

 will be there to keep you and the other pests 

 company. 



There is another pest in this country known 

 as the "Bull Nats" that are about as trouble- 

 some as anything and they affect not only your- 

 self but your animals and they frequently cause 

 the death of your animals by getting into their 



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