Jasper County, Missouri - Chapter 14: Miscellaneous Events, 1912

Chapter 14: Miscellaneous Events

A SuBPRisED Metbopoutan - The Flood op 1872 - Thb Qrasshoppbbs - Jaspeb County Eing Hunt - ^A Remarkable Jubt. In 1877 the Olohe-Democrat sent a special correspondent to Jasper county to write up the mines and miners and had expected to find a wild and woolly sort of civilization. On fiTifJipg a community not only noted for its thrift and energy, but for its high state of morals, he wrote a most flattering description of the county which we produce here in part.

''Carthage is, for a fact," says the surprised St. Louis man, ''the most beautiful city in the West, having an enterprising population noted for taste and neatness in every kind of improvement. The residences are after modern architecture, surrounded by shrubbery of every description. The streets are clean; no stench of filth is permitted to remain an hour ux)on any of the thoroughfares. Five or six handsome churches all bxdlt by the charity of the people, who have given every evidence of their liberality. The inhabitants are church-going people. Seven or eight hundred children attend the different Sabbath schools each Sabbath.

"Carthage is becoming quite a manufacturing city in several departments, and other manufactories will doubtless be established here at no distant period. Railroad facilities are good. The Missouri and Western Railroad is now completed from Pierce City to Oswego, Kas., making timely connections with the M. K. & T., at Oswego, and the St. Louis and San Francisco at Pierce City, Mo. Great credit is due the worthy Superintendent, Mr. Rombauer, for the courteous manner in which he treats every one with whom he has business and the manner in whieh he conducts the railroad.

"Joplin, the great mineral wonder of the world, is situated in Jasper county, fourteen miles west of Carthage, having a population of 14,000 and over 200 bujsiness houses, and possessing a wonderful trade.

"Several wholesale houses have opened and supply the trade of the towns and villages that now surround it. It has been proved that Joplir possessed an inexhaustible amount of mineral, and that brings monej

**In 1870 only a few huts in the vicinity of the present site of the city. In seven years she has a population of nearly 14,000 inhabitants. Joplin has had a bad name abroad, and, in behalf of her merits, let me say that I never saw a more law-abiding town anywhere, nor a better set of officials. She enforces a Sabbath ordinance, and her churches are crowded every Sabbath, morning and evening. Also the Temperance Club has a membership of over 300. The mineral land owners offer good inducements to good miners and a good miner will invariably succeed at Joplin.

"We almost neglected to say that Joplin has erected gas works and she looks at night much like a city in fact, and they are beginning to agitate the question of water-works and street cars. Doubtless within the next two or three years she with have both.

**The wheat crop in this locality is short - ^not over half a crop. The oats and com particularly the latter, are quite good. This far com never looked better than now.

** Under the management of Prof. Underwood, the present Superintendent, the schools of Jasper county are already assuming a change for the better. Jasper county takes great interest in her schools.

On May 28, 1872, there occurred a most severe rain and as a result Spring river, Center creek and Turkey creek came out of their bankd and flooded the lands which were adjacent. Spring river, at Carthage, was a mile wide.

Great Flood

Thrilling Scenes and Incidents - Houses, Trees, Logs, Cattuc, Hogs, Afloat - ^Men, Women and Children in Danger of Drowning - ^Reported Loss of Life.

Not within the recollection of man has Spring river cat up such a caper as it did last Monday, in the broad light of mid-day - swell from a quiet stream, not over ninety feet wide, and only about half bank full, to a raging torrent a mile In width. Inside of one and a half hours* time. And but once before was the water higher, which was In 1844, when* the river was some four feet higher than on last Monday.

Sunday night had been a very stormy one - not so much rain in this section but an unusual amount of lightning, as elsewhere detailed. The rain here had not been sufficient to raise the river half a foot. Monday forenoon was a quiet one - cloudy but no rain. About noon the skies became clear. No one suspected the impending deluge. Shortly after noon the roar of waters was heard up the river. Those who were on the bluffs northeast of town, could see the breast of water, half a mile wide, and from four to six feet bigb, rolling down the bottom, sweeping everything before it. It was a grand sight, and but for the destruction that it was occasioning to fences, crops, and live stock, could have been enjoyed by any one. When it struck a fence there was a general muss, and the next moment the fence would be no more. In a half hour*s time the whole bottom was submerged, and the water was backing up the branches that lead to the river.

By one o'clock crowds began to flock to the bluCTs and hills, and edge of the water north of town, to see the sight. Men, women, and children were there by the hundreds, and the crowd kept up all afternoon. Many drove out in carriages. Nearly the entire population of Carthage was out during the afternoon. The waters commenced falling about three o'clock, and what had taken but two hours to raise, was forty-eight hours in going down.

At two o'clock we visited the bluff upon which the Woolen Mill is located. The mills and banks were swarming with an excited populace of all ages^ Every one expressed astonishment at the sudden and unaccountable rise of the river. The water was over the arch from which the big spring issues. The gentle, murmuring, lovely Spring River, in two hours' time had been transformed into a roaring, mighty river, a mile in width and thirty feet deep. Rails, boards, cord wood, debris of all kinds were floating down stream, while occasionally a resolute porker could be seen headed for the shore. Hundreds of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs were overwhelmed in the floods and perished. Many persons, at work in the bottoms, had narrow escapes from being drowned. Several miles below, a number of men were obliged to climb Into the tree tops to escape drowning, and were treed for nearly twenty-four hours. The railroad hands encami)ed on the bottom north of town, were so surprised by the suddenness of the rise of water, that they saved nothing of their camp equipage, and were glad to escape, hurriedly with nothing in their hands to impede their progress.

No lives were lost in this vicinity, for a wonder, though many were the narrow escapes that were made. How the settlers of Spring River above and below this point fared, we have not yet Jeamed, but we Imow that the loss of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and fences, let alone crops - wheat and corn damaged - must be immense. We have heard it estimated at $200,000, in the county. The following are only a few of the losses in this vicinity : McDaniel lost 80 head of hogs. W. F. Steinmltz lost 100 cords of wood at his brickyard, worth $400; and the fence around 28 acres of ground, a total loss of about $500. Lamb lost a good fence, all swept away, and a field of wheat plastered over with mud. Myers & Son lost 80 cords of wood at their woollen mill. The Improvements on the Fair Ground are all swept away, and the north trestle work on the lower bridge. The upper bridge is all safe and crossable. The flood did not reach Galesburg, 14 miles west of here, until the evening, and the loss of property was very heavy. The water raised to the second story of the flouring mill at that point, and as the first story contained a great deal of wheat and manufactured Ikmr, the loss is very heavy. The bridge at Georgia City is all safe.

The above is but an outline of this most remarkable freshet The question naturally occurs - ^What caused the sudden flood? It was at first supposed in this vicinity that McDanlel's mill dam had broke, and that the flood would soon go down, but that notion was soon abandoned. The next supposition was that there must have been a water spout up the river somewhere, but we have not yet received any Intellig^ce to that effect. The most probable account is that a sudden and long-continued shower among the hills of Lawrence county, on Sunday night, occasioned the swift raising of the water. At any rate the flood of May 27, 1§72, will go down to posterity as one of the epochs of Spring River on a high old spree.

Since writing the foregoing we have learned of the drowning of a man, woman, and child at Oregon, 18 miles east of here, but no particulars, except that the sad news is not a canard.

Notwithstanding the seriousness of the immense loss of property by the sudden rise of Spring river last Monday, there were many occurrences that look very amusing after it is all over with. Among the hundred funny incidents we can mention but a few. A Swede had Just gone over on the island, north of town to set out cabbage plants, when the flood of water burst all around him, and in a few moments he was compelled to climb a tree for safety. He stuck to his cabbage plants, and roosted in the tree top until ten o'clock the next day.

After the upper bridge was approachable, a pig was discovered on it, safe and sound, and glad see the folks that visited it in its Robinson Crusoe condition. It had sought the bridge at the outburst of the flood.

We noticed a wash line, reaching from one of the houses to a tree dose by, under the brow of the hill, north of town, at the height of the flood, with some newly washed clothing dangling in the muddy water - ^not a very flattering prospect for a good clean dry.

The railroad hands camping in tents in the bottom were so sudd^ily routed out, that they could not save anything, but had to flee &npty lidded to escape the flood. One of the ladies was so overwhelmed with the suddeness of the deluge, that she never thought of fleeing, and a strong armed man pi<^ed her up and carried her to a place of safety through water four feet deep.

Dr. Jas. F. Wilson was approaching the upper bridge, on the other side of the river. Just as the flood burst upon the bottom. He saw it was impossible to reach the bridge, and so he galloped down to the lower bridge two miles below, but really three the way he had to go and readied it Just as the flood got there. Five minutes after he crossed the approaches to the bridge were past fording. He noticed a large charred ten foot saw log in the water at the ui^)er bridge which passed under the lower bridge as he crossed over it

After the bottom was covered with water, a man across the river by the name of Widdom rigged up a skiff and went cruising through the waters for victims. He rescued quite a number of folks, among the rest an old man, woman, and baby, who had sought safety in a bush. The swift current carried the crew three-quarters of a mile down the stream before they landed on terra flrma. In one case he found two men in a treetop, with their horses hitched below in water nearly deep enough to drown them. The men preferred to stay with their team. Ed. @t John lost his stylish little pony by the freshet It was in Bett's pasture field on the island in Spring River bottom.

During the summer of 1874 Jasper county, in common with other western-border counties, was visited with a pest in the form of grasshoppers. Jasper county was not devastated so much, however, as the .eastern portion of Kansas, but the crops were greatly damaged. The younger generation and people who did not live in the west during the early 'seventies cannot appreciate the extent of the damage done by the grasshoppers and the stories told by the farmers seem almost fabulous, although absolutely true.

It will be remembered that the county lost fully two-thirds of its population during the war and as a result of the desolation and waste, the wild game which had almost been exterminated before the unpleasantness returned to its old haunts and during the latter 'sixties, Jasper county was again the hunter's paradise, deer, wild turkey and the like being plentiful and sometimes bigger animals came prowling around, but as the population increased, these were either exterminated or driven out by the onward march of civilization. During this period large hunting parties were quite i)opular, and occasionally a number of hunters would drive the game toward some point where the killing would take place. One of the most successful of these ring hunts took place Saturday, January 20, 1872, under the direction of U. B. Hendrickson of Oronogo, assisted by W. B. Grossman, John B. Rood, William C. Brooks, A. C. Grisham, J. W. Helman and William Ranken, as the committee on arrangements. The center of the ring was designated as a point one mile east of Pilot Grove and the hunting limits included the territory from the Newton county line north to the section line running through Oronogo, and from the section line two miles west of Carthage to a west line which would now run though the eastern portion of Carthage Junction. The hunt commenced at 1 o'clock A. M. and a hundred hunters participated in the sport. Two o'clock was designated as the hour to be in the center and the hunters approached from the four sides, each under the leadership of a captain who selected the marksmen from his party who at the appointed time were to bring down the game, and if perchance a deer or any other animal (and of course, there were many wild beasts killed only for their hides and skin) made its escape through the line, the file closest guarding the outposts brought them down. The day was long remembered by the sportsmen of the county.

At the January term of the court of common pleas, held at Carthage in 1878, there occurred a most extraordinary proceeding, the trial of a case by a jury of lawyers. The trial was in the case of Wheeler vs. Johnson and was in the nature of a suit to enforce the collection of rent on a farm.

The plaintiff attorney, S. G. Williams, asked that the case be tried by a jury of lawyers, as their knowledge of the law and court rulings would enable them to more quickly grasp the legal phase of the case and apply the facts accordingly. The defendant's attorney, R. A. Cameron, accepted the challenge and a jury of lawyers was impanelled, among them W. H. Phelps and M. G. McGregor.