Alexander County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter VIII Cairo's Site And Its Abrasions By The Rivers 1910
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Book Title: A History Of The City Of Cairo Illiniois

CHAPTER VIII

CAIRO'S SITE AND ITS ABRASIONS BY THE RIVERS-LEVEES AND LEVEE

CONSTRUCTION-HIGHEST KNOWN FLOODS



EVER since the government survey of our township in 1807, it has been known that

while the Ohio River shore remains fairly stable and unchangeable, the

Mississippi, on the contrary, devours its banks and changes its current from

place to place unless restrained in and by some of the various means adopted to

stay its ravages. There is now no telling when it was first observed by persons

in anywise interested here that the Mississippi side of this site needed to be

watched and its cutting away by the river carefully guarded against. The matter

received close attention at the beginning of the Holbrook administration in

1836. So carefully had the situation been examined that it was strongly urged in

and out of the legislature that the southern terminus of the state's Central

Railroad should be removed from Cairo to some point near Caledonia on the Ohio,

twelve or fifteen miles above Cairo. See Chapter VI.



   The cutting by the Mississippi had the careful attention of the Trustees, and

their numerous engineers made their best efforts to devise plans to arrest it.

Resort was had from time to time to spur dikes of broken stone, placed at

different points on the river shore and extending down stream at a small angle

to the shore line. In this way it was sought to force the current away from the

bank. These dikes served a good purpose, no doubt, but they failed to prove an

effective remedy. From failure to keep a close watch upon the situation or

rather to make the needed repairs, the river worked in behind the ridges of

broken stone, and it was not very long until the stone piles were found to be

out in the stream. The situation was never very good, and it finally became so

bad as to produce some considerable anxiety not to say alarm on the part of the

people. They had trusted the whole matter to the Trustees, who claimed exclusive

ownership of the banks and shores from Cache River on the Ohio to a point on the

Mississippi opposite the present Beech Ridge. Moreover, many of the leading men

in the town insisted strongly that the Trustees had obligated themselves not

only to build and maintain sufficient levees but to protect them and the city

from the abrasions of the rivers. It is probable that the Trustees would have

done much more than they did had not their means been very limited. In the year

1874, tne river seemed to have entered upon a season of unusual voracity, which

it maintained steadily during the years 1875 and 1876. It pushed the rock piles

out of its way or rather worked in behind them and soon undermined the levee for

a long distance northward from a point where the present Thirty-Third Street, if

extended westward, would intersect the present Mississippi shore. The Cairo &

St. Louis Railroad, then very recently finished and extending along the

Mississippi levee, had to be moved back from time to time, thus encroaching upon

adjacent cornfields and other private premises. That company, like the Trustees,

was too weak financially to resist the river's advances. Many of us will

remember what a time it was and how the city in 1876 set about building what is

now called the new levee on New Levee Street. We all then thought it was very

bad; but the further we get away from it, the discouraging and dangerous

situation seems to grow upon us and to impress more and more upon us the vital

importance of not allowing, under any circumstances, that treacherous river to

get the start of us again. It was at this time that government aid was sought,

and it is due to our congressmen and a few of our leading citizens here, who

worked hard and incessantly and obtained that government aid which was so

greatly needed and which has had the effect of allaying, perhaps too much, all

of our fears. We must not depend too much upon others. Congressional aid comes

very slowly and sometimes in small quantities, and sometimes not at all. This

western side of the city is its vital point. It has been that, so far as the

site is concerned, for seventy years. It is time for that feature of our

situation to pass away or so to change that we shall cease to have any

apprehension. The government policy is not well established —not up to this

time. It has to do only with the interest of navigation, it is often said, and

the land-owners and others must take care of themselves.



   One of Col. Taylor's reasons for his contract with the Illinois Central

Railroad Company of July 18, 1872, by which that company was released from the

obligations of its contracts of February 11, 1851, and of May 31, 1855, was that

he expected to obtain from the Cairo & St. Louis Railroad Company a contract

binding it to keep up and maintain not only the Mississippi levee, upon which

its track was laid, but to protect the levee against the abrasion of the river.

He failed to obtain such a contract or a contract upon which such construction

could be placed; and that company, having wholly failed and all of its property

having been sold in a foreclosure proceeding and transferred to the new company,

the St. Louis & Cairo Railroad Company, stripped of all objections of any kind,

that source of help or protection, whatever it might have been, has long since

passed away. Col. Taylor knew all about the Cairo & St. Louis Railroad Company,

for he was its first president. He himself knew and said it was not able to

build a standard gauge railroad, but could only build one of a narrow or three

foot gauge; and why he or his Trustees found it best to let out the Illinois

Central, one of the strongest companies in the United States, and take in its

place one of the weakest therein, is scarcely conceivable, excepting on the

theory that the Trustees were in great need of the $80,000 they got from the

railroad company. Those contracts were as levees to the city. They were plain

enough as to all essential and vital features. The levees the railroad company

was to build and maintain in perpetuity were to encompass the city or the site

thereof and were to be of the width of 80 feet on the top and sufficiently high

to keep out the highest waters known.



   To say that the railroad company overreached the Trustees would not be

correct. The latter knew what they were doing as well as the former; and these

contracts, which the two made at the very outstart of their existence and which

both believed to be of the utmost importance to their city, were mutually

annulled to the mutual satisfaction of both of them, but to the never-ending

damage and injury to the City of Cairo and its people. About the only answer the

Trustees ever made to this charge was that the affair was a matter of their own

business and of nobody else. From 1851 to 1860 or later, they said the very

contrary in their innumerable circulars and advertising pamphlets. Col. Taylor

as much as conceded that some explanation was due the public, and hence what he

said about what he hoped to get from the Cairo & St. Louis Railroad Company in

lieu of his contract with the Illinois Central.



   Capt. Henry C. Long was the civil engineer of the Trustees and of the

Illinois Central Railroad Company for many years here at Cairo. The Trustees had

instructed him to make a careful survey of the site of the present city of Cairo

and to report fully in regard to the same, especially in regard to river

abrasions and the necessary levee construction. The work seems to have been done

under the supervision of his father, Col. Stephen Harriman Long, United States

Topographical Engineer and Superintendent of Western River Improvements, with

headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky. His report bears date September 2, 1850,

and is directed to Col. Long, and the same was laid before the Trustees, Taylor

and Davis, by a letter dated at Louisville, Kentucky, September 4, 1850. It is

probably the most full and carefully prepared report that was ever made relative

to Cairo, its site, its dangers from abrasions, the remedies against the same,

and the extent, height and width of needed levees. It would make twenty-five

pages of this book and is accompanied by a number of diagrams or descriptive

drawings. We give only those pages of the report describing the drawings, as

follows:



    Drawing No. 1.—"Chart of Cairo and its Environs." This drawing is intended

to give a general view of the position and configuration of the shores, islands,

etc., at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; it also represents

the true geographical position of the city of Cairo; a general plan of its

interior arrangement with reference to streets, public squares, levees,

railroads, etc.; the relative distance and localities of "Ohio City," the town

of "Trinity," mouth of "Cash" river etc. The scale is 1,000 feet to one inch.

The lines of survey, triangulation, etc., are traced in faint dotted lines, and

are sufficiently apparent on the drawing, without a more minute description.



    Drawing No. 1, Fig. 2, represents on a scale of ten feet to one inch, a,

cross section of proposed levee, with its stone escarpment, etc., a full

description of which will be given in an after part of this report.



   Drawing No. 2.—"Topographical sketch of Cairo." This drawing is constructed

on double the scale of No. 1, being 500 feet to one inch; it is consequently

more minute in its details, representing accurately the appearance of Cairo at

the time of the survey. The foundries, work shops, hotels, houses, etc., are

assigned their true positions; the proportion of cultivated, cleared, and timber

land is accurately given; the length, position, and general appearance of the

levees are clearly defined, and in connection therewith, the true position and

extent of the three natural ridges, extending across the city site. All of the

topography is the result of actual survey—no attempt being made at mere

embellishment, and no lines or marks introduced which a careful attention to the

natural features of the ground would not authorize.



   The line marked Crevasse is the one to which I would call your particular

attention, as requiring immediate consideration. At this locality the abrasion

is taking place. The levee at this place should be repaired, or rather

reconstructed with all possible dispatch;—the distance marked is 1,675 fset, but

as it is recommended to locate the new levee further from the river bank, (in

the position given in Drawing No. 1,) this distance will be somewhat

increased—but the entire cost of the work is trifling, as shown in the subjoined

estimates, and its necessity urgent.



   It may be pertinent to state in this connection, that this crevasse is said

to have commenced in the spring of 1847, and has been suffered to increase since

that time without any attempt at repairs. From 1843, the time of first

completion of the chain of levees, to 1847, the enclosed portion of Cairo was

secure from over-floods, the levees with all their imperfections having up to

that time served as a complete protection.



   Drawing No. 2, Fig. 2.—"Section on Crevasse;" scale vertical, 20 feet to one

inch. Horizontal, 200 feet to one inch; constructed from levels taken over

natural surfaces, showing the amount of embankment necessary to bring the

repairs of crevasse to level of Mississippi Levee; also showing the height of

Mississippi and cross levees above water surface at time of surveys.



   Drawing No. 3.—"Plot of the City of Cairo." Scale 500 feet to 1 inch. This

drawing gives a plan of the city on a larger scale and more in detail than

represented on Chart No. 1. The blocks generally are 420 feet square, inclusive

of two 2o-feet alleys intersecting each block at right angles. The streets are

60 feet in width, with the exception of the avenues, which are 120 feet wide.

From a careful study of the nature of the city site, and a comparison of most

approved plans, this is considered the best arrangement that can be offered in

point of economy of room, convenience for business purposes, perfect ventilation

and drainage. From the direction given to the principal streets and avenues,

they will generally command a fine breeze, which, during a great proportion of

the year prevails from the south and west. The blocks designated by circles, are

recommended as suitable positions for public squares. A commodious park may be

obtained at the point, marked on the Plot "Crescent Park," by extending the line

as shown on the drawing, and reclaiming a valuable portion of land, now entirely

useless.



   It is contemplated to introduce along the line of Commercial Avenue, a

railroad track, which will pass northerly from the lower extremity of Cairo to a

connection with the Great Western Railroad of Illinois—the depot being located

at the intersection of this avenue with "Adams Avenue" on the triangular block

marked on the Plot "Main Railroad Depot." Other connections can be made with the

Western Railroad, as distinctly shown in Chart No. 1, giving to this city

incalculable facilities of communication with the interior of the State of
Illinois.



   The works required in order to prevent the recurrence of the evils occasioned

by the crevasse, and to afford a more perfect protection against overflows than

they have heretofore imparted, are as follows, viz.:



   (Here follows a detailed statement or estimate of the expense of raising the

Ohio levee eighteen inches and of culverts or sewers of masonry through the Ohio

levee and of the elevation of the Mississippi levee the same as the Ohio and of

the construction of a new levee to connect the Mississippi levee with the cross

levee about one hundred and fifty yards from the margin of the Mississippi River

and parallel thereto, and of the enlargement and increased elevation of the

cross levee and of the restoration of the levee where the crevasse existed on

the west as shown in drawing No. 2.)



   A copy of "Drawing No. 2, Topographical Sketch of Cairo," is found on another

page; and I may here remark that the copies of the maps and plats contained in

the book contain a great deal of information which I have not deemed necessary

to state or repeat. An examination of them will answer many questions which

would otherwise seem very pertinent.



   Col. Long must have been, in some way or other, in the service of the

Trustees, or he must have been specially directed by government authority to

give careful attention to the two rivers here and the site of the city. His son,

Capt. Long, as above stated, was in the service of the Trustees and just why his

report, which was for them, should be directed to Col. Long, I do not know.



   Col. Long was at the head of the expedition sent out to the Rocky Mountains,

in 1819, by the secretary of state, John C. Calhoun, under President Monroe. The

members of the party embarked on the Ohio at Pittsburg on the steamboat "Western

Engineer." They reached Cairo on the 3Oth day of May, 1819. They seem to have

stopped some time at America, which was then starting out with strong hopes of

becoming quite a city, claiming as it did to be the head of navigation. While

there Col. Long purchased a number of lots and two or three years afterwards

purchased others. They passed Cairo and went on to St. Louis and up the Missouri

River and thence to the Rocky Mountains, the highest peak of which was given the

name of Long, and has ever since been called "Long's Peak." It was supposed then

to be the highest peak of that range of mountains, and while it is put down upon

the present maps as higher than Pike's Peak, it does not seem to be the highest.

The occount of this expedition was written by Mr. Edwin James and is contained

in volumes ten to fourteen of Dr. Thwaites' "Early Western Travels," now in our

public library. We will refer to Capt. Henry C. Long in another chapter.



   Long entertained no fear of the Ohio side of the site causing any

considerable trouble. I may, however, remark here that the Ohio side was

neglected so long that very considerable inroads were made a number of years ago

upon the bank at a number of places, in particular, that part of the bank or

shore extending from Eighth to Fourteenth Streets. Then, too, at points above

the city, there have been from time to time very considerable abrasions, but

none of such character as to attract much attention. The difference between the

two rivers consists chiefly in the clearer water and the slow movement of the

one and the more rapid and whirling current of the other, loaded down with sand

and silt. On the Ohio side, between Eighth and Fourteenth Streets, nothing at

all was done until it became evident Ohio Street would be cut in two and

destroyed. The same thing that had taken place on the Mississippi side, in 1874,

1875 and 1876, was taking place on the Ohio shore but to a comparatively limited

extent. _ The similarity consisted in neglect to adopt and carry out remedial

measures to arrest the abrasions. On the Ohio side the danger was perhaps a

little more immediate. The cutting had reached the street line and just inside

of the street, of the width of eighty feet, stood the line of business houses,

which would no doubt have been reached in the course of a very few years had the

supineness of the Trustees, the railroad company and the city continued much

longer. The situation led to an investigation to ascertain whose duty it was to

protect the levee embankment and the street thereon. It seems to have been

concluded that the duty rested on the railroad company and the Trustees under

their contracts of June u, 1851 and May 31, 1855. All three of the parties,

however, denied liability. In this matter, as in many others, the city and the

people found the Trustees and the railroad company much disposed to act

together; but the situation was so plainly to be seen, so much like the midday

sun in a cloudless sky, that the three parties got together, in political

phrase, and compromised the controversy by each agreeing to pay one-third of the

expense. Thomas W. Halliday was the mayor then, and friendly to Col. Taylor, the

resident Trustee, his father-in-law, and also to the railroad company. Tom

firmly believed that more could be done by conciliatory means, by friendly

negotiations, and by compromises, than by stout words and lawsuits. This was

Tom's uniform method of procedure. He did not own the city council, but had he

owned it, the unanimity could not have been more unanimous. One of our

newspapers called attention, now and then, to the harmonious agreement that

generally prevailed under Tom's administrations, of which there were five or

six. While such a state of things does not always argue well, it is, as a

general rule, far better than factious opposition and frequent bickerings,

conditions we often see in municipal legislative bodies.



   These three parties took hold of the embarrassing situation, and no doubt did

the best they could. They did nothing to the river or to the shore line or its

slope. They simply constructed a stone wall at the east line or margin of Ohio

Street and extended it to the height of four or five feet above the street

level. It was to serve the double purpose of stopping the cutting at or near the

upper line of the bank when the river was high, and to keep the water from

coming over the levee should it rise above the same. It has no doubt prevented

the cutting caused by high water, but it could serve no good purpose where there

was under-cutting in times of low water. Fortunately there has been little of

that for many years. How long the high stone wall will stand on the sloping

shoulders of the river bank, no one can tell. The ever-existing danger is that

its great weight, coupled with a softening bank in high water times, may carry

it down. In those contracts above mentioned will be found provisions which, had

they been enforced, would have saved the city its share of the expense of the

stone wall and have stopped the cutting, which made the wall necessary or

something else in its stead. We would quote a few paragraphs from those

contracts, but it would require much space, and besides the matter is wholly one

of history and need not be presented at length. It was the same old controvers3'

that was fought over in the United States court at Springfield in the suit of

the Trustees against the railroad company to recover for moneys expended which

they said should have been expended by the company. That suit was compromised

July 18, 1872, and the contracts annulled. The Trustees claimed that the

railroad company should construct the levees and put a stop to the abrasions.

The railroad company denied everything it could, especially the claim that it

should protect the natural banks from the abrasions of the rivers. The two

litigants seem to have cared for no one and nothing but themselves, and in

effect said to the people of the city, that if they wanted levees and river-bank

protections they would have to get both in the easiest and best way they could.

Judge Bross, in 1863, began a suit in equity in our circuit court against the

Trustees to procure, if possible, an enforcement of some of the provisions of

those contracts; but he was taken off to the United States court at Springfield

and found himself too weak to cope with his defendants, supported as they no

doubt were by the Illinois Central Railroad Company. He had cited the multitude

of circulars and other representations of the Trustees concerning the levees and

levee protection and the perfect security the purchasers of lots would have

against the rivers, either high or low. He insisted that the purchasers of lots

had a right to rely upon the representations which had led them to make their

several investments, and that to deny them that legal right would be a great

injustice. The Trustees, on the other hand, replied that whatever their

representations were, they were not of a contractual nature, and that whatever

became of the levees themselves or of the natural ground upon which they rested,

the lot owners could have no recourse on them, and that they must bear their

losses as best they could. I must not dwell longer on this feature of Cairo's

history, save only to say that if such a condition ever existed before or

anywhere else, an account of the same can nowhere be found. The situation was

bare of any qualifying or ameliorating features.



   Returning to the Ohio River abrasion between Eighth and Fourteenth Streets,

we remark that the stone wall would never have become necessary had the Trustees

done what they often promised and what they started once or twice to do, and

that was to extend the wharf from 8th Street to I4th Street. Many years ago they

did a large amount of work along there to stop the cutting during low water, but

they never undertook to do any systematic work in the way of filling the slope

and protecting it by some system of revetment. They owned the premises and

denied the right of the city to have anything to do with the river banks or the

levees. They were private property to be kept up or let go, regardless of who

suffered by the inroads of the rivers. In the place of an extension of the wharf

and the improved state of things that its extension, would have brought about,

we now have that unsightly gap in the river bank and the perpendicular stone

wall as a perpetual reminder of the needy condition in which the city was.

placed and of the parsimony of the Trustees and the Illinois Central Railroad

Company. The one owned the river bank to low-water mark, and the other for all

practical purposes owned Ohio Street, and the river was destroying both subjects

of ownership; but the two parties knew very well who was in most danger, they or

the people of the city, and hence it was easy to get the latter to compromise.

The situation was not unlike that which existed in 1874, 1875 and 1876, when a

long stretch of the Mississippi levee went into the river and what is now called

new levee had to be built. The Trustees owned the levees which the railroad

company had built for them; but their interest in their construction and

maintenance seemed to change as their sales of lots and lands became less and

less and their conviction increased that their Cairo enterprise would never come

up to their expectations. And, therefore, some years ago they signified to the

city that it could have the levees or most of them if it would assume the burden

of their maintenance. The city saw that it was in a strait betwixt two, and

therefore accepted the donation, which was no doubt quite as beneficial to the

donor as to the donee.



   As bearing on the condition of the levee or river front, from Eighth Street

to Fourteenth Street, and the matter of the stone wall, I quote here from Col.

Taylor's deposition taken in 1866 in a suit between the Trustees and the city,

in the United States Circuit Court at Springfield, to show that it was part of

the original plan, agreed upon by the Trustees and the railroad company, that

the river front should be graded and paved from Eighth Street to Fourteenth

Street, the same as from Fourth Street to Eighth Street:



   "Since the commencement of this suit about $20,000 has been expended by the

Trustees of the Cairo City Property in constructing a sustaining wall at the

base of another portion of the same slope, which seemed to be necessary to

preserve the river bank from abrasion. To complete the sustaining wall at the

base of the remaining part below 14th Street of the levee and complete the

pavement and improvement of the slope of the levee to 14th Street, so as to

finish it as a wharf, will still require the expenditure of $150,000, and this

amount the Trustees of the Cairo City Property had procured and had commenced to

expend for the purpose indicated when their operations were arrested by the

action of the City Council of the City of Cairo in providing for the collection

of wharfage by the City authorities. The Trustees will proceed to expend this or

any other amount necessary to complete the wharf to 14th Street as soon as their

right to the levee is confirmed to them and will extend the wharf still further

up the Ohio as the public wants may demand."



   To much that I have said in this chapter objection will no doubt be made; but

it must be remembered that I am writing a history of Cairo, and that large parts

of it relate to the Trustees and the Illinois Central Railroad Company. It was

their city by birth and should have been theirs for nurture and not for

exploitation. I might have written a history of Cairo and filled it full of nice

things about everybody, corporations, land-trusts and all; but it would not have

been history. Cairo's history is a history of facts, hard facts, most of them

and most of the time.



   I need not say much about levee construction in addition to what is here and

there found in other parts of the book.



   The terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad was to be here. The company was

greatly interested in the work of building a city, but to do that and to protect

its own terminal property and interests it was equally interested with the

Trustees in having the best of levees constructed; and hence those

never-to-be-forgotten contracts of June 11, 1851, and of May 31, 1855. By these

contracts the railroad company, by the deed of October 15, 1853, had obtained

extensive and very valuable grounds, five hundred acres, I suppose, and for

these lands and many important privileges, it bound itself to furnish the town

of the Trustees with levees encompassing the site thereof and of the width of

eighty (80) feet on the top and sufficiently high to keep out the highest known

floods.



   Many years ago, I procured from the Harvard College library a copy of the

plat or survey of Cairo's site, made by James Thompson in 1837. I handed it to

Mr. Charles Thrupp, who had resided here in Cairo since the year 1850, and

requested him to indicate thereon the present lines or shores of the rivers. He

did so and returned it to me, with a line drawn thereon showing how much the

shore line had moved inward on both sides of the city, since 1837. According to

the line drawn by him it appeared that the rivers had made inroads almost at

every point except those immediately below the city, on the south and southwest.

The invasion was so great that I could scarcely believe that the line was

correctly drawn. And yet it would not be so difficult to ascertain the loss at

almost every point. The first survey of the township was made in 1807, and the

acreage given in each congressional subdivision or fractional part thereof.

Other surveys were made prior to 1840 and the acreage duly ascertained; and it

is very probable that Mr. Thrupp was quite well enough acquainted with the

quantity of lands in the different divisions to enable him to make a fairly

correct estimate thereof.



   It will be observed that here and elsewhere I have said much about the

abrasions of the rivers. I have done this in the hope of impressing upon the

minds of the people of the city the importance of giving the closest attention

to the action of the rivers upon the shores or banks adjacent to the city. It

may be said that the matter is quite obvious enough. I think so; but it is

nevertheless true that time and time again the beginnings of abrasions have had

no attention given them until the expense of the needed work had increased many

fold.



   In the report of the Trustees of October 1, 1884, to the shareholders, it was

stated that after the washing away of the Mississippi River bank in the fall of

1875, the government had expended in the protection of the bank up to June 30,

1880, $113,351.43, and that the expenditure was made upon about three miles of

the river bank, commencing a short distance below our old cross levee and

extending up stream; and further, that the abrasion where the work had been done

had been entirely arrested and that whatever abrasion had taken place since was

below the government work. The report further stated that since 1851, the total

erosion prior to the government work had amounted to 963.69 acres, and that

since the work was done most of the land had been restored to them, that is, the

Trustees. The report went on to say that the government work extended but a

short distance below the old cross levee and not down to the place where the

levees came to the river bank.



   THE HIGHEST KNOWN FLOODS. Elsewhere will be found an interesting table

showing the greatest and smallest rainfalls, the highest and lowest

temperatures, and the highest and lowest water in the Ohio River, at Cairo,

since the year 1871. This table was prepared for me by Mr. William E. Barren,

Chief of the Weather Bureau at this place, and extends over the period of

thirty-nine years. We place it in the book for purposes of easy reference.



   The two rivers are so close together that the measure of the elevation or

level of the water in the one will do also for the other. The Ohio River water

gauge, when the Ohio is high and the Mississippi low, measures for the Ohio

only, and when the Mississippi is high and the Ohio low it may be said to

measure for the Mississippi only. In other words, the backwater from the one or

the other should not be considered as giving here the true level or height of

the water in the river into which the backwater flows. It may also be remarked

that while the rivers may be very high at St. Louis or at Cincinnati, Louisville

or Evansville or even at Paducah, it does not follow that they will be high here

at all. High water at those places seldom attracts attention here; and

especially is this the case with the Mississippi River. It is the Ohio only

which has ever given the city of Cairo any trouble of consequence. Even when

both rivers are high at one and the same time, little or no notice is taken of

the matter unless the Ohio reaches one of its very highest stages. It is the

Ohio that claims for itself the right to rise and fall through a perpendicular

distance of fifty feet. The Mississippi and its chief tributaries come from the

cold regions of the north and their high waters do not reach Cairo until the sun

is well up in the heavens to melt the northern snows and raise the rivers from

the low and frozen levels of the winter. These flood waters do not reach Cairo

as a general thing until about the first of June and sometimes considerably

later. The Ohio, on the contrary, sends down its flood waters three or four

months earlier. The highest floods ever known or recorded were those of 1882,

1883 and 1884, and the highest point reached each time did not vary twenty-four

hours from February 25th of each of those years. As elsewhere stated, the

Tennessee is the largest of the Ohio's tributaries. It is a large river, coming

out of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, crossing the state of Tennessee at

Knoxville and entering the state of Alabama near Chattanooga and then running

for some distance in the last named state turns northward and again crossing the

state of Tennessee, passes for the distance of fifty miles through the state of

Kentucky and discharges its waters into the Ohio just fifty miles by river

measurement from the city of Cairo. Just above the mouth of the Tennessee, and

at the distance of twelve miles, the Cumberland River also enters the Ohio.

These rivers and the Ohio's other tributaries are filled full by the early

spring rains, which are much heavier than further northward, and the consequence

is that the Ohio at Cairo is seen to mount up at a rapid rate and rush forward

into the Mississippi at a speed hardly to be expected considering its usually

gentle flow.



   We read accounts of great floods in the Mississippi more than a hundred years

ago; but as before stated, great floods at considerable distances above Cairo,

in either river, are not reliable indications of what they were here. At St.

Louis and Kaskaskia or Ste. Genevieve, there were great overflows in 1785, 1815

and 1844, and at many other times since. As to the flood of 1815 at this place,

it is said that the water was so high that persons rode in skiffs or other boats

out as far as Charleston. Many times since 1815, the water across the river in

Missouri has extended far out over the adjoining country, but none so far as

Charleston, we suppose. In 1785, Augustus Chouteau went by skiff or other small

boat over the American bottom from what is now East St. Louis to Kaskaskia; but

it is also stated that the flood of 1844 was higher by two feet than that of

1785, in that region on the Mississippi. The overflow of 1844 could not have

been, for this region, very high; for it seems to be a well established fact

that the Cairo levees withstood that flood and securely protected the city,

which by that time had been reduced to very small proportions, but for other

causes than high rivers or inundations. It is exceedingly difficult, if not

quite impossible, to reconcile the accounts found here and there concerning the

great floods in the Ohio and Mississippi from Cincinnati and St. Louis to the

mouth of the Ohio River. When we consider the fact that we have no very reliable

information as to the exact height of the water here at Cairo prior to 1867, we

must concede the difficulty of obtaining exact information at other points. Such

information would be found to exist only where immovable monuments of some kind

could be found upon which the different heights of the water had been carefully

inscribed.



   THE FLOODS OF 1832 AND 1840.—The English bond-holders, in 1840, sent to Cairo

Mr. Septimus Worsley, of London, to examine and report the condition of things

he found here; and in a letter dated Cairo, Illinois, July 14, 1840, he says,

speaking of the levees:



    "The measures, as stated by Mr. Strickland, are perfectly correct, and I

have practical proof that if the proposed bank had been completed, the site of

the City of Cairo would have been perfectly protected from this year's flood,

the greatest that has been known for eight years—the waters at their highest

stage not having reached within two feet of the top of the levee, which has not

yet in any place been carried up to its proposed height; it was also

ascertained, that whilst the waters higher up the river were rapidly increasing,

the waters around Cairo, after they had attained a certain height, did not rise

more than an inch during the day."



   THE FLOOD OF 1844.—As elsewhere stated, Mr. Miles A. Gilbert came to Cairo in

June, 1843, and during the remainder of that year he constructed the cross levee

extending from a point near Eighteenth Street and Ohio levee out westward and

then bearing northward and connecting with the Mississippi levee. The length of

this line was 8670 feet. That work was no doubt well done, for it and the other

levees seem to have withstood the high water of 1844. If the reader will turn to

the topographical map of Cairo made by Mr. Henry C. Long September 2, 1850, he

will see the lines of the Cairo levees and what is said thereon regarding the

height to which the water arose. It must have been thought very extraordinary

that Cairo should escape that flood when at so many other places it had caused

great loss and damage.



   THE FLOOD OF 1849.—We hear nothing more of overflows or high rivers until the

year 1849. Regarding the effect of the flood of that year upon Cairo, we give

here an extract from the "Cairo Delta," of March 20, 1849, entitled "High Water":



   The rivers have been higher during the past week at this point than they have

been since the construction of our levee. Had several hundred dollars been

expended last winter in repairing a break in the Mississippi levee, repairing

the sewers and elevating slightly portions of the Ohio levee, the spectacle

would have been presented of this being the only point in this region of country

on the rivers, not more or less inundated. The public would have beheld a place,

which for years back has been ridiculed above all others, through unfair

prejudices, as a point subject to1 frequent inundations—standing alone and

singular, almost the only dry and perfectly protected town on the Ohio or Lower

Mississippi rivers. But through the negligence or inattention of the company

owning this valuable property—or probably from their ignorance of the real want

of such expenditure —these trifling repairs and improvements were not made, and

Cairo, like almost every other place above and below on the rivers, has suffered

from the floods. The flood first poured through the old break in the Mississippi

levee till the waters inside the levees became higher than the Ohio river, and

finally reached such a height as to overflow the Ohio levee in different places.

Our stores and the Delta office have not been much discommoded by the flood.



   We trust and hope that the repairs so much needed will no longer be

postponed. We are satisfied that if the company were fully aware of the injury

inflicted upon their interests here, by this deferred expenditure, it would no

longer be withheld. The expense of making repairs is now much increased. The

immense value of this property, and the high prices lots would undoubtedly bring

if offered for sale, might warrant any expenditure for its protection.



   We hear of immense destruction of property on almost every western river. The

coast below is suffering severely, and the prospects of many extensive sugar

planters are blasted for two seasons to come. Never before have we heard of so

great a rise in all our rivers taking place at one time. The noted floods of

1844 cannot compare with the memorable floods of 1849.



   We have seldom heard anything much about the flood of 1849; but Editor Ad. H.

Sanders seems to have had an excellent newspaper and to have treated everything

he took in hand with sound judgment. But at this distance of time, we cannot be

very certain about any such matter or thing occurring that far back. The

Trustees of the Cairo City Property were in charge. They were endeavoring to

perfect their land titles, and were doing many other matters and things of a

preliminary nature. Even at that time, they had strong hopes of an Illinois

Central Railroad, whose terminus would be here at Cairo, and which would aid

them in putting up high and strong levees; and it may be that they did not care

to spend considerable sums on the levees as they then existed. Still, we can see

no good answer to what the editor has said regarding what might have easily been

done to prevent the disaster.



   The high water of 1858, which broke through the Mississippi levee on the

afternoon of Saturday, June 12, 1858, was not of extraordinary height. It is

said the levee had been badly constructed, at least in places; that those

persons having that part of the levee in their immediate charge left stumps and

logs in the line of the levee and had used the same so far as they would go

instead of well selected earth. Col. Taylor was here on the ground and this was

his statement both to the public generally and to the committee of shareholders

sent here to investigate the calamity. Col. Taylor and Mr. H. C. Long were here

all the time during the construction of the levees by the Illinois Central

Railroad Company. The contracts of June 11, 1851, and May 31, 1855, provided

that the engineers of each party should co-operate with each other in carrying

forward that great and most important work of levee construction. Who used the

logs and stumps as a part of the levee construction and whose duty it was to

know what was being done and prevent the wrong, need not at this distant day be

considered. But if there was more than a grain of truth in what Col. Taylor said

was the cause of the inundation of the city, it should have aroused the

indignation of the twenty-five hundred people then in Cairo. It no doubt led to

a better supervision of the work; for since that day we have never heard of

anything like it occurring again.



    THE FLOOD OF 1862.—On the 20th and 21st days of July, 1863, two large public

meetings of the citizens of Cairo were held at the court house to consider the

condition of the levees. Col. John S. Hacker was the chairman and David J. Baker

the secretary of the meetings. Among the men present and taking a part were

Daniel Hurd, Robert H. Cunningham, Dr. E. K. Hall, John W. Trover, Peter Neff,

John Howley, Martin Egan, David T. Linegar, and Joseph McKenzie. The proceedings

of the meetings were published in the Cairo Daily News of July 27, 1863. The

resolutions adopted were long and wide in scope and ladened with severe

complaints against the Trustees. Portions of the speeches are given. I quote two

or three of the preambles and a sentence or two from one of the speeches to show

their references to the floods of 1858 and 1862.



   And whereas, this said temporary levee did, in the year 1858, give way, and

the city was thereby submerged to an average depth of twelve feet, causing a

loss of life and the destruction of property to the amount of hundreds of

thousands of dollars, besides a vast deterioration in the value of real estate,

and a loss of confidence in the practicability of building a city at this

unrivalled commercial point;



   And whereas, the rivers did, in the year 1862, rise to a height of fourteen

inches above the present levees, and the city property was greatly endangered,

and was only saved by the industry of the citizens by turning out and erecting

and guarding temporary levees on the top of the present Ohio river levee;



   And whereas, the levee on the Ohio river, between the graded part thereof and

the Illinois Central freight depot, has caved and is still caving to an alarming

extent, and to the great detriment of property holders; * * * In 1862, the levee

was again found to be insufficient. You all remember the consternation that

spread among the inhabitants, and how all packed up and fled to the levee for

safety. You also remember how the people took the matter of defense into their

own hands, and worked almost day and night at the false levees that finally

saved us. Had it not been for these efforts we would have been overflowed, and

worse disasters and a greater destruction of property would have taken place

than in 1858.



   It will be here seen that as far back as that early day the bad condition of

the river front from Eighth Street to Fourteenth Street was being complained of

as the source of much trouble to the city. Those contracts of June 11, 1851, and

May 31, 1855, between the Trustees and the Illinois Central Railroad Company

provided for the extension of the work all the way to Fourteenth Street; but it

was never done, and after many years the situation became so bad as to

necessitate some remedy or other, and hence the present stone wall on the river

front.



   THE FLOOD OF 1867.—Mr. Barren, in speaking of the River Gauge, in Chapter XI,

says that the flood of March, 1867, reached a stage of 51 feet, measured by the

present gauge. This information may have come from Col. Taylor or from some one

else who had preserved a mark of the same on some building or structure that was

still standing in 1871, when the gauge was first put in or established.—It was

indeed a trying time to the people, not unlike what it was in 1862, to judge by

the proceedings of those public meetings just referred to.



   The writer had not been here long and this was the first high water he had

seen at Cairo. But for another reason he remembers its occurrence. He had charge

of a stock of drugs for sale, and had advertised the same somewhat extensively,

with the result that James S. and Philander W. Barclay, the former of Chicago,

and the latter from Bowling Green, Kentucky, came here with a view of purchasing

the same and locating in Cairo. They purchased the stock and thus began their

wholesale and retail drug business which they conducted here for so many years.

Besides recording the fact that this sale was consummated only a few days after

the water had reached its highest mark, I desire to record here also my high

esteem and regard for those two men. The population of Cairo was long made up of

people who were born elsewhere; but of all who came hither and made their homes

here, it would be hard to mention citizens of higher character and standing than

these two Kentuckians. Whether it was due to their state, or their town, or

their parents, or the general environment in which they grew up or were trained,

they bore the true stamp of character, to bear which ought to be the proudest

possession of any man. James removed from Cairo to Oak Park in the year 1892,

and there, ten years afterward, he and his wife died within a few weeks of each

other. The other brother remained in Cairo until the time of his death July 6,

1907. He had long been a prominent Mason, and had, some years before his death,

reached the thirty-third degree, a very high honor indeed in that ancient order.

A biographical sketch of him, but all too meager, is found in Volume I, Templar

History, Illinois, 1857-1881. There were six of the Barclay brothers, a picture

of whom, taken in Louisville in 1901, is now in the possession of Mr. Phil C.

Barclay. Of those six brothers, but one, Jo C. Barclay, is now living. Elsewhere

I have spoken of the five Halliday brothers, of whom Major Edwin only is now
living.



   With reference to those floods in the early eighties, it may be said that the

first of the three was the only one that caused the people of Cairo any serious

apprehension, and that arose almost chiefly from the fact that a part of the

levee on the westerly side of the city was of recent construction, and was made

to take the place of a portion of a much older levee that had been undermined by

the abrading waters of the Mississippi. This new levee had not become

sufficiently firm and solid as to wholly prevent the sliding down of the inside

slopes here and there. Even this would not have occurred had not the builders of

the levee excavated too close to it, and the consequence was that water

accumulated in these excavations and so softened the foot of the levee inside

that at one or two places very considerable portions of the inside of the levee

slid down into the excavations below. The people were very much alarmed by this.

The water in the Mississippi was very high and of the width of at least a mile

or more; and the heavy winds blowing northeastward pressed the waters with great

force against the levee. The situation looked very bad indeed; but when the

flood subsided and the waters were withdrawn into their natural boundaries every

one saw that the city was in much less danger than the people had supposed. That

new levee had been constructed with a long fine slope and it was seen how the

great flood of waters that seemed to be pressing against the levee was simply

resting upon the long slope. But after all is said it was a remarkable time,

such as every one hoped would not be seen again. Had the levee been as weak as

it looked it might have given away entirely; but the faithful and untiring

efforts of the citizens of the town so strengthened and fortified the weak place

that all fear was largely removed. The strong men who had charge of that work

were Capt. Halliday and Mayor Thistlewood, or Mayor Thistlewood and Capt.

Halliday. I know not which of them I should name first.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF CAIRO ILLINOIS

BY

JOHN M. LANSDEN

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY

1910



COPYRIGHTED, 1910

BY JOHN M. LANSDEN



The Lakeside Press

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO



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