HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      75

taxable valuation of which would add $750,000 to the duplicate. The gen-
eral assembly, however, did not favorably consider and act upon the
memorial. Without assistance from the state by way of appropriations
the cost of such an undertaking was considered too great and was there-
fore practically abandoned. But at the session of the general assembly
of 1889 an act was passed providing for the incorporation of associations
and the issuing of bonds for the purpose of drainage and the prevention
of overflows by the cutting of ditches, the construction of levees, etc., the
cost of such improvements to be proportionately assessed against the lands
thereby benefited.
    But it was not until ten years later that any concerted action was
taken by the interested land holders, when, within the period of practically
six years, bonds were issued by the county aggregating more than a hun-
dred thousand dollars for such improvements: May 18, 1899, for the
excavation of the Lafferty ditch, twenty bonds of $810 each, or $16,200:
June 1, 1900, for the excavation of the Connely ditch, seventy-three bonds
of $500 each, or $36,500; September 15, 1902, on account of the Lewis
Township Improvement Company, forty-four bonds of $500 each, or
$22,000; May 16, 1903, for the Old Hill levee, thirty bonds of $100 each,
or $3,000; October 7, 1904, for the Guirl ditch, forty bonds of $500 each,
one of $338.11 and one for $338.16, or $20,676.27; January 16, 1900, on
account of the Eel River Improvement Company, fifty bonds of $500 each
or $25,000.

    The Lafferty ditch, cut in 1900-01, extends from the slough on the
former Presnell lands, a half mile north of the Old Hill road, the length
of 5 miles and 3,338 feet, opening into Eel river below, and within a mile
of the former Eldorado, or Woodrow mill seat. The promoters of this
improvement, primarily, were Dr. C. H. Wolfe and Marshall Lafferty, of
Clay City, so named from the circumstance of Lafferty’s signature having
been the first on the petition.
    The Connely ditch, intersecting Harrison township, extending from
the Rose Patch, of which the trend is southwestward, the distance of a
fraction more than fourteen miles, opens into the river at a point some-
thing more than a mile above the Brunswick bridge. This waterway, in
its upper course, follows, in part, the flow of Big creek, and in its lower
course that of the old State ditch excavated in 1854. This ditch was cut
in the latter part of the year 1900 and the fore part of 1901, completed
about the 1st of March, of which the dimensions are 24 feet in width at
the top, 15 at the bottom, and 8 feet deep, the embankment 20 feet wide.
    The Guiri ditch starts at a point within what is known as the Puckett
Prairie, opening into the old canal about a mile and a half from this point,
the channel of which it courses to its terminal point, near Johnstown. The
length of this improvement, constructed by the joint action of Greene and
Clay counties, is approximately nine miles, of which practically two-thirds
is within Lewis township. At intervals of a mile there are laterals run-
ning out, opening into the main channel, which are from a mile to a mile
and a half in length. The contractors on the construction of this improve-
ment were John W. Sutton, W. B. Sutton and John W. Cooprider, on
which the work was begun in 1905, but not completed until at some time
in 1908. This is known as the Guirl ditch for the reason that William
H. Guirl was one of the original promoters of the work, his name appear-
ing as the first signature to the articles of incorporation.