﻿A Brief Sketch of the Floods in the Ohio River. 



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23d. — Warm morning; cloudy; 10 o'clock, snows and is cold. 



24th. — Cold, cloudy, wet and disagreeable. 



25th. — Ditto, and mud enough to content anybody. 



26th. — Continues cold and damp. 



27th. — Cloudy; wet; some snow. 



28th. — Rained all day moderately. 



29th. — Clears off in the afternoon ; chilly, damp atmosphere ; snow not 

 yet gone ; roads and streets almost impassable. 



This month is remarkable for many extraordinary circumstances, warn- 

 ings, etc. The Ohio has done more damage by overflowing banks than 

 has ever been done since the first settlement of the country. The destruc- 

 tion of houses, wheat, hay, corn, fences, etc., banks falling, bridges de- 

 stroyed, all business suspended, general distress for wood, coal, etc., and no 

 possibility of obtaining a supply." 



Almost the same conditions brought about almost the same results in 

 1883 and 1884. The first great flood of which correct record now exists 

 was that of February, 1832. There are several points in the city where 

 permanent high water marks were made on the 18th day of the month, and 

 they agree almost exactly. The stage of water on that date was 64 feet 3 

 inches. The population of the city then was 28,014, less than one-twelfth 

 as numerous as now, and the city proper was bounded by the Miami Canal 

 on the north, the Ohio River on the south, Deer Creek on the east and 

 Western Row (Central Avenue) on the west. No such means as the tele- 

 graph, or even the railroad, existed by which the news of an approaching 

 flood could precede it, and warn the inhabitants of coming danger. Un- 

 heralded, the water began to come on the 8th, and increased in volume ten 

 days, 'at the end of which time it covered between thirty and forty squares 

 of the city, which was nearly all then crowded into "the bottoms.'' 

 Therefore, nearly the whole city was inundated, the effects being much 

 more disastrous to Cincinnati of 1832 than to Cincinnati of 1883 or in 

 1884. Many houses floated away. Two lives were lost by the giving way 

 of foundation walls, the men being buried in the wreck. 



1847. — When Cincinnati contained about 96,000 inhabitants, the river 

 began to swell December 10, 1847, and reached 63 feet 7 inches ou the 

 17th. The rise was from streams on both sides of the river, that 

 empty their water into the Ohio at points above here. There was a heavy 

 fall of snow on the 15th. 



1883. — February 15th, 66 feet 4 inches. 



1884. — February 14th, 71 feet § inches. 



