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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



Spencer, Indiana, December 4, 1913. 



Dear Sir: 



Replying to your inquiry of this date, I will say that there was very 

 little sickness occurring in this community that could be attributed to the flood. 

 In the four months immediately following the flood there was less sickness 

 in Spencer, than for the corresponding time in any year for the last twenty 

 years. 



Yery respectfully, 



Allen Pierson, M.D., 



(County Health Officer.) 



Flood of 1875 Compared with the Recent March Flood 



The flood of 1875 came in the last days of July and the first 

 days of August. It was of about the same height as the recent flood. 

 Coming in August, it caught the crops, corn, wheat and oats, and 

 caused much more damage than the March freshet. There are 

 many conflicting reports of the relative stages of the two floods. A 

 number of reports showed that the August flood of 1875, was twelve 

 or eighteen inches higher than the March freshet. About the same 

 number showed that the last flood was as high, or higher. These 

 conflicting reports may be explained as follows: During the last 

 thirty-eight years there have been many obstructions, such as public 

 roads being graded up, interurban grades, and steam railway grades. 

 In each case the man above the obstruction declared that the March 

 flood was the higher while the man below^ the obstruction was very 

 sure that the flood of August, 1875, was the higher. 



The reports between the obstructions showed that the two 

 floods were about the same height. By the occurrence of the recent 

 flood in March, there was no space taken up with green vegetation 

 and growing crops. There is much less timber in the White River 

 bottom now than thirty-eight years ago. So, on the whole, there 

 seems to have been considerable more water passing down the West 

 Fork last spring than in August, 1875. The flood of 1875, on the 

 East Fork was not in any way to be compared with the recent freshet, 

 which was from seven to ten feet higher than any previous high 

 waters. 



The following newspaper reports will give some idea as to 

 the conditions of the floods: 



{Special to the Indianapolis Journal.) 



Martinsville, Ind., August 6, 1875. — The waters here are subsiding. 

 White River is slowly falling, but it will be several days yet before it is within 

 its banks. Running as it does through the best portion of the country — through 



