BYBEE-MALOTT : THE FLOOD OF 1913 



203 



the great corn and hog section — its damage to our farmers and people is im- 

 mense. Acres of fine growing corn and wheat in the shock that a few days 

 ago gladdened the hearts of the grangers who possessed it, are ruined and 

 wholly lost. All the creeks and other small streams have been flood high, 

 inundating whole farms, thereby destroying crops, carrying away fences, and 

 doing other damage. Many of our roads have been rendered impassable 

 and the bottom land stripped of the fences. The loss of Morgan County by 

 rain and flood will not fall below a million dollars, and all kinds of trade and 

 business will be stagnated for the next twelve months. The Vincennes Rail- 

 way here and for several miles above and below, is badly damaged and it will 

 be several days before it will be in condition for the regular running of the trains. 

 Large quantities of old corn stored near the river have been washed away 

 and otherwise damaged by the raging waters. The wheat, oats and hay in 

 the highland have been badly damaged by the late rains. 



{Special to the Indianapolis Journal.) 



Shoals, Ind., August 3, 1875. — The rains in Randolph County, which 

 from the head waters of the East Fork, raised the river from ten to twelve 

 feet, in many places filling the banks to their utmost capacity. The storms 

 Saturday night and Sunday, in which water fell in Martin County to the depth 

 of four inches, have completed the disaster. It is useless to speak of the crops; 

 they were unusually promising, and now they are destroyed. As a result 

 of the inundation the sandstone bluff on which Shoals is built, is an island. 



Indications are that the river once ran east of the town, along the level 

 bottom lands. It is supposed that some convulsion of nature changed it to 

 the west side. The water is over the site of the old chamiel. To make this 

 more complete, an ambitious creek joins with its waters. Fields of corn 

 and wheat are covered, fences are washed away, and the lives of the residents 

 are endangered. Ingress and egress are to be obtained only in canoes or on 

 the railroad. 



It is feared that the back waters in time will be productive of much sick- 

 ness. Thousands of acres of land are covered with water in this portion of 

 the county, the water reaching to the branches of the trees in the forests, 

 in the bottom land. The water is still rising at the rate of an inch per hour. 



In January, 1847, in June, 1856, and in September, 1866, the East Fork 

 was exceedingly high, but the greatest damage attends the present overflow 

 on account of the crops. 



{Indianapolis Journal, August 7, 1875.) 



No one who has not passed over the track of the late flood can form an 

 adequate idea of the vegetable decay that it must produce. All along the 

 river and its tributaries the weeds, as well as the good part of the crops are 

 'cooked black,' wilted, and sure to rot in the hot sun and remaining moisture 

 so fast as to create a general miasm. Already the black water of the 'Old 

 Bayou," next to the Vandalia Railroad is covered with that thick green scum 

 that says, malaria, chills and fever, as plain as if every shoot of fungus were 

 a tongue. This is but one of a myriad ponds left by the retreating waters. 

 A great deal of corn is washed or broken down, and its decomposition, as 

 well as that of the overturned oats and grass, and the soaked logs, and refilled 

 swamps, will swell the dangers of infection. 



