Shawnee County KS Archives History - Books .....Chapter XVIII 1905 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 26, 2006, 12:39 am Book Title: History Of Shawnee County, Kansas CHAPTER XVIII. The Disastrous Flood or 1903—Principal Events in North Topeka—How the Sufferers Were Rescued—Boats and Cables in Service—Loss of Life and Damage to Property—Systematic Relief Afforded—Strange Experiences and Odd Incidents—Major Harvey and His Salvage Corps—North Topeka Restored. A calamity befell Topeka in 1903 so appalling is its nature that it will be recalled in future years, no doubt, as the most famous event in the history of the city. For a period of one week, beginning May 30, 1903, the city was the scene of an almost unexampled flood, by which the entire northern part of the city, and a considerable territory south, east and west from the main business district, were inundated by water from the Kaw River and its tributaries, resulting in the loss of 29 lives by drowning and exposure, the destruction of a vast amount of property, and the eviction of 8,000 persons from their homes. CAUSE OF THE FLOOD. In the general district drained by the Kaw River rain had been falling almost continuously from May 16th. The waters of the Saline, Blue and Smoky Hill rivers, added to that of the Kaw, forced the latter out of its banks at Topeka on Friday, May 29th, completely submerging the valley. By Saturday night, May 30th, that part of Topeka lying north of the river, and known as North Topeka, was entirely under water, endangering the lives of thousands of citizens who had remained at home to make a valiant effort for the protection of their property. At this time 8 inches of water had fallen at Topeka. West from Topeka, at Manhattan, the rainfall was 9 inches, and at Salina, further west, it amounted to 17 inches. SCENE OF THE OVERFLOW. North Topeka, which is the First Ward of the city of Topeka, had a population of 9,000, and was the seat of some of the larger manufacturing industries of the city, such as flouring mills, woolen mills, elevators, planning mills, lumber yards and smaller concerns. The Union Pacific Railroad passes through the place, and maintains the Union Pacific Hotel and extensive freight and passenger depots there. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway also has a station on the north side for the accommodation of its line to Atchison. All kinds of business were represented in the business district, as it was the trading point for a large community of farmers living north, east and west. When it became apparent that the flood was about to reach the point of danger, many families living close to the river abandoned their homes and moved to the south side. Those residing further away felt secure in the belief that the water could never reach them. Old settlers, who had lived there for 40 years or more, insisted that the water could rise no higher than it did in the time of former freshets, through which they had passed in safety. By noon of Sunday, May 31st, all traditions of the early days had been superseded, and the old settlers found themselves moving to the upper floors, or clinging to the roofs of their houses, refuge in some cases being sought in the branches of tall trees. The flood covered the entire limits of North Topeka. The river, bursting from its low banks, cut a new channel across the center of the town, through which the water rushed with tremendous force. To add to the distressing situation, fire broke out in the Thomas and Gabriel lumber-yards, caused by slaking lime, the burning timbers being carried by the current to all parts of the beleaguered town, setting fire to numerous frame buildings and increasing the peril to human life. From a placid stream 200 yards in width, the Kaw River became an angry torrent extending for a distance of five miles north and south. RESCUING THE VICTIMS. As soon as the extent of the flood and the danger to life were realized the problem of relief and rescue was promptly undertaken by the citizens of Topeka. All of the telephone lines were down, the street railway bridge had been swept away, the approaches to the Melan passenger and wagon bridge had been carried out, and there was no way of communicating with North Topeka from the south side of the river except by boat. Even this facility was limited. Ordinarily the Kaw River is so shallow that boating is not practicable. The entire naval equipment of Topeka at that time comprised about 25 light canoes, and there were about that number of men in the city who were capable of rowing a skiff. Whatever craft could be found, however, was promptly put into commission, and willing hands volunteered to row across the river in these frail barks. Freeman Sardou, a fisherman, was one of the men who worked persistently at the oars, making a trip every minutes until he had gathered about 200 persons from tree-tops and isolated buildings, and landed them in places of safety. On Sunday a line of boats was established at the foot of Western avenue and many of the flood sufferers were landed there during the ensuing three days. The channel was not only difficult of passage, but the volume of driftwood and timbers from dismantled bridges and wrecked houses made the boating exceedingly difficult. The mass of debris lodging against the big bridge connecting North Topeka with the south side forced the water around the south end of the bridge and backed it up Kansas avenue and other streets for a distance of three blocks, doing great damage to the Wolff packing house and several wholesale establishments and commission concerns near the Rock Island Depot. Further up the river the City Park and Turner garden were covered to a depth of three feet, and the city pumping station was inundated, cutting off the water supply. The river reached its greatest height on Saturday evening, May 31st, when it was 27 feet above low-water mark, and began to recede at 9 o'clock that night, but the fall was so slow that it seemed to make no impression, and it was not until June 4th that the water ceased running in the streets of North Topeka. HOW THEY WERE BROUGHT OVER. To aid in the work of rescue, a pontoon bridge was constructed, extending from Second street to the south end of the Melan bridge. When this had been finished, it was discovered that the north approach to the big bridge had also been carried out, and that North Kansas avenue and the streets east and west of that point were merged into a lake of water extending to Garfield Park, Soldier Creek, and two miles beyond. A heavy cable was then stretched from the north end of the bridge to the brick buildings along Kansas avenue as far north as the Skinner ice plant, and by this means strong men pulled boats to and from the bridge, hand over hand, carrying food in one direction and returning laden with human freight rescued from points of shelter. This work continued for several days, supplemented by similar work at the Santa Fe bridge, and the Sardou bridge further down the river. Those first to be rescued were families living nearest to the river where the water was deepest and the exposure most severe. A temporary relief station was established in two street-cars, which had been left standing on the north bank of the river when the street railway bridge went down. While the situation was at its worst, a half dozen of the students of Washburn College run a cable across the chasm made at the north end of the big bridge, attached pulleys thereto, and drew a large number of women and children over by means of a "breeches buoy." With the downpour of rain on Saturday and Sunday came a chilling wind. It was November rather than June weather, and women and children shivered with cold in damp rooms, or upon the roofs to which they climbed in dripping garments. On Sunday 500 persons were rescued in boats, 250 more were brought away on Monday, and after that probably 100 a day were brought over until the danger was past. The receding water left a deposit of mud from six inches to three feet deep in every building in North Topeka. In many instances the weight of mud caused the floors to collapse, carrying the contents of the rooms into the cellars. The loss in household furniture was very large, and 700 pianos were water-soaked and ruined. IMPRISONED IN HOUSES. The first outside aid came from St. Joseph, Missouri. The Rock Island railroad was able to operate trains from the north to the town of Elmont, from which point boats could be worked into North Topeka from the direction of the State Reform School. The mayor of St. Joseph sent a force of 60 men equipped with boats and carrying provisions and clothing for the needy. These boats took out about 4,000 persons, who were cared for at the Reform School or sent to Holton and other towns to which the flood had not extended. Without this timely succor many of the flood victims must have perished, as they were not only short of food but beyond the reach of the few boats in service from Topeka. In some instances men refused to be taken away from their houses, stating that they preferred to remain and go down with their homes if necessary. Many who abandoned their homes found shelter in the larger buildings throughout Topeka which were best calculated to withstand the terrible force of the tempest. In the Davis grain elevator at one time were 200 persons; in the "B" Street Baptist Church, 150; in the First Ward fire station, 110; in the woolen mills, 306; in the Grant School, 200; and there were a dozen groups of smaller numbers in other protected buildings. It was impossible to remove them while the water was rising, but by desperate efforts food was conveyed to them in sufficient quantities to minimize their distress. Those in the Davis elevator were taken out by the St. Joseph boats, and the rest were removed by the local rescue parties. On Friday and Saturday nights persons living on the higher ground 10 blocks distant from the scene of the flood could hear the cries of victims who were perched on the roofs of houses or in the branches of trees, and there were occasional reports of revolver shots fired as signals of distress. Headquarters for the refugees and relief committees were established in the Topeka Auditorium, where the sufferers were fed and clothed, and distributed to other buildings in the city, and to the private residences which were thrown open to them. The total registrations at the Auditorium was nearly 2,000, but more than that number found shelter with relatives and friends elsewhere. Hospitals were established, and physicians and nurses exerted every effort in caring for the sick and helpless. The Salvation Army fed 500 homeless persons daily for a week or more, and other charitable organizations afforded every possible relief. PROPERTY DESTROYED. An idea of the property loss may be gained from the statement that in North Topeka alone the flood extended to 1,500 residences and 300 business blocks and public buildings. What was true of North Topeka was equally true of the whole district up and down the Kaw River, the richest valley in the State, although the destruction in North Topeka was greater, by reason of the fact that the land is lower and the population denser. The flood damage and suffering extended for a distance of 200 miles in length and six miles in width. Farms were laid waste, crops washed out, and much live stock drowned. It is not possible to give an accurate statement in detail of the total property loss, but the following is believed to be a reasonable and comprehensive estimate of the losses in the Topeka district, as given by the local newspapers at the time: Residence property in North Topeka $300,000 Rock Island, Santa Fe and Union Pacific Railways 175,000 Topeka City Railway 75,000 Lumber Yards and Sash Factory 40,000 Otto Kuehne Preserving Works 10,000 Mills and Elevators 35,000 J. Thomas Lumber Company '. 35,000 Other Business Concerns in North Topeka 300,000 Charles Wolf Packing Company 50,000 Parkhurst & Davis Mercantile Company 5,000 Other Wholesale and Commission Houses 50,000 Potato Growers and Market Gardeners 400,000 Nursery and Fruit Growers 150,000 Cattle, Hogs, Poultry and Grain 85,000 Farm Improvements and Growing Crops 450,000 Shawnee County Bridges 40,000 Western Union Telgraph Company 10,000 Telephone Companies 8,000 City of Topeka—Pavements, Sewers, Sidewalks, Etc 50,000 __________ Total $2,268,000 THE DEATH LIST. The loss of life by reason of the flood was greater at North Topeka than at any other point on the river. The known deaths amounted to 29 in number, of which the following is a correct list: Edward Grafstrom. James Phillips. Henry Jordan. Miss Minnie L. Puryear. J. W. Houser. Mrs. Nellie Watson. Henry Ward. Mrs. Minnie King. Raymond Garrett. Theodore Edwards. Miss Louise Seahaven. Forest Kutz. Murle Story. Girl, unidentified. John L. Adams. Mrs. Nancy Shonkweiler. Mrs. Alice Bishop. James H. Stout. Benjamin McDonald. Mrs. Jessie Stout. Mrs. Kirrie Buford. Agnes Stout. Simon Taylor. Josephine Stout. Mrs. Jerry Mayweather. Lena Stout. Mrs. Sallie Halyard. Infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Stout. Mrs. Mary Kennedy. Edward Grafstrom was a mechanical engineer of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. He was drowned on Tuesday evening, June 2nd, by the sinking of a small gasoline launch which he had built for the purpose of rescuing those in distress. Forest Kutz was a school teacher who was found in a tree, so weakened by cold and exposure that when the rescuers reached him he fell into the boat with such force that it was capsized, and he was unable to regain it. Henry Jordan lost his life by the sinking of a boat in which he was endeavoring to rescue a man from a telegraph pole. J. W. Houser fell from the Santa Fe railroad bridge and was drowned. Henry Ward, an old soldier living near Oakland, fell into the river from a tree and was drowned. Raymond Garrett, the five-year-old son of Fireman G. H. Garrett, lost his life by the overturning of a boat. Miss Louise Seahaven, an employee of the Western Woolen Mills, was drowned near the Forbes elevator, together with Murle Story, the 12-year-old daughter of George M. Story. Mrs. Alice Bishop died in Christ's Hospital, after being rescued from her home. Mrs. Nancy Shonkweiler, James H. Stout and his wife, Mrs. Jessie Stout, and their four children were drowned on Sunday by the collapse of a house in which they had taken refuge. The others named in the death list are colored persons who lost their lives, either through direct flood causes or from the overturning of boats which were almost unmanageable against the violent current. It is probable that there were other losses of life, the full extent of which will never be known. SOME OF THE EXPERIENCES. Volumes might be written without covering more than a fraction of the thrilling experiences and odd incidents of the flood. Parents were separated from their children in the storm, boats were capsized on paved streets where the water was 12 feet deep, horses and cows were drowned while tied to trees in front of their owners' premises, houses were lifted from their foundations and moved a block or more away by whirlpools, or carried down stream to be dashed to splinters against the railroad bridge. One man pulled lumber and tools to the top of a cottonwood tree and built a rude cabin, in which he stored supplies enough to last him a month. Another was found upon a roof, calmly playing a cornet. Another and more desperate fellow stood at the upper window of his home with a shotgun in his hand- and swore that he would kill the first man who tried to rescue him. Women refused to get into the boats without their children, and children refused to go without their pet dogs and cats. Horses and cows were found in the second stories of houses, a pig was found in a brass bed, and a lamb was .rescued from an upper porch, where its cries of agony had convinced the boatman that it was a young child in distress. Of personal experiences, that of Robert Anderson is a fair sample of what happened in a hundred other instances. Anderson lived at No. 1101 Madison street. When he returned home from work on Friday evening, the streets were waist-high with water. Two blocks from home he fell into an open sewer, but saved himself from being drawn into the pipes by clinging to a passing log. When he finally reached home, the members of the family were found upon the second floor. His mother and younger brother were rescued by boat. Anderson, his father, and another brother remained behind. During the night the kitchen of their home caught fire. They made ropes of bed clothes, by which young Anderson was lowered to the scene of the fire with a bucket. He succeeded in extinguishing the flames and was then drawn upstairs. They remained in the house from Friday evening until Sunday morning, when they were taken in a boat to the woolen mill. Two girls were caught by the flood while trying to save some of their wearing apparel. They were driven to the second floor by the rising water, and then to the attic. With a pair of scissors they cut a small hole in the roof, and with bed-slats pried off the shingles until the opening was large enough to permit them to crawl through, and a boat subsequently carried them beyond dauger. [sic] THE RELIEF WORK. The citizens of Topeka subscribed $50,000 to aid in caring for the sufferers, and there were other contributions from outside sources amounting to $20,000. In the work of relief Capt. H. M. Philips served as chairman of the committee to provide food and shelter; Otis E. Hungate as chairman of the rescue committee; A. A. Godard as chairman of the finance committee, and Mrs. Charles F. Spencer as chairman of the woman's relief committee. Frank H. Foster had charge of the rescuing party at the south end of the Melan bridge. Judge A. W. Dana directed the operation of the cable line. A. M. Harvey and E. L. Overton were in command at the north approach to the bridge. The relief work at the Sardou landing was directed by Ralph Brigham, and that at the Western avenue landing by A. M. Fuller and Frank Blanch. William Taylor and M. D. Henderson had charge of the boat service. The construction of the pontoon bridge and the flatboats was performed under the direction of J. B. Betts and George H. Henderson. W. J. Stagg was principal assistant to Captain Philips. Congressman Charles Curtis and Mayor W. S. Bergundthal, both residents of North Topeka, did everything in their power for the relief of their neighbors and friends, and efficient help was furnished by Sheriff A. T. Lucas, Chief of Police Carlos A. Goff, and by President John E. Frost and Secretary Thomas J. Anderson, of the Topeka Commercial Club. Special branches of the relief and rescue work enlisted the services of Dr. Norman Plass, James A. Troutman, Charles K. Holliday, Alfred B. Quintan, J. B. Larimer, Frank M. Bonebrake, W. W. Mills, J. W. Thurston, C. E. Hawley, Jonathan Thomas, Henry Auerbach, W. T. Crosby, E. H. Crosby, and of hundreds of others, men and women, who were not identified with the various committees. HISTORIES OF THE FLOOD. Two excellent accounts of the great flood have been written in book form: one by Llewellyn L. Kiene, a souvenir pictorial book, and the other by Mrs. Margaret Hill McCarter, under the title of "The Overflowing Waters." A graphic description of the rescue work was written by Maj. Alexander M. Harvey, former Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, in these words "On Saturday evening, May 30th, of the flood period, accompanied by Judge Richard F. Hayden, I made my way across the bridge to the north side. We found eight or ten men there, who were doing what they could to bring refugees over, and we joined them in the work. Judge Hayden went out in a boat with a companion about 9 o'clock, and we saw nothing more of him during the night. Dr. Conrad Biorke and two colored men soon same in with W. H. Troutman and daughter, whom they had picked up. These colored men were perfectly at home in the water and assisted us in landing two other parties. The water was then at its highest point, and the currents were running like mill-races all around us. We were stationed in two cars that were stranded at the north end of the bridge, and had a telegraph pole swung from one of them to the end of the street-car bridge, which yet extended up to the Melan bridge. From there we crossed to the Melan bridge on boards. Up to 12 o'clock we had sent out several boats and had received a number of persons and transferred them to the south side. "About midnight Dr. L: M. Powell informed me that Llewellyn L. Kiene, of the State Journal, was stranded at the corner of Van Buren and Gordon streets, and urged me to send a boat to him as soon as possible. We sent four different boats before we succeeded in getting him back to the cars. Two of the boats that were compelled to return without him brought back other persons that were found in trees. About 4 o'clock on Sunday morning we discovered that the portion of the street-car bridge which we were using would soon wash out, and although we still had one boat out with a number of men in it, we thought it best to cross over to the Melan bridge. Two young men named McCauley and Ramsey soon returned with Mr. Kiene. CONSTRUCTING THE CABLE. "After crossing to the south side, I secured breakfast and some dry clothing and then returned to the bridge, where I found that the north approach and the street railway bridge which we had used the night before had washed out, and a terrific current separated us from the men on the stranded cars. As I went through the line on the south end of the bridge, I found Frank Ritchie and a number of other Washburn College boys, who were trying to get through to the stricken district. The guards informed us that a committee was on the bridge at that time to determine whether anything more could be done at that point. We waited until the committee came back, and they told us that everything would have to be abandoned at the bridge, the guards having been instructed to permit no one to go over. We interviewed them, and asked permission to cross, in order to undertake the establishment of a line to the north side. It was then agreed that such of us as wanted to work together might go on to the bridge for that purpose, and so they at once passed the Washburn boys and any others that I knew to be good workers, and we started some of them over, while others were collecting a supply of cord, rope and cable. By the time our second detachment had reached the bridge with the material the ones who had gone first had succeeded in establishing communication with the men in the car, on the north side. "This was accomplished by the men on the bridge getting loose a telegraph wire that yet extended across the current, and then signaling the men on the car to get hold of the same wire. The men on the car tied a rope around one of their number and let him get into the water and wash across the street to a place where the wires were entangled. This being done, he broke loose the same wire our boys were holding, and was then hauled back through the water to the car, and our communication was established. We soon had a half-inch steel cable extended across the chasm, and fearing that it might not be strong enough, we sent over an inch-and-a-half rope to be used with it. To keep the rope out of the water we fastened it to the cable with short pieces of wire about every six or eight feet. Then we put a pulley around the wire cable and rope, and Fred Ritchie, who, as well as his brother, Frank, has the same sort of courage that old John Ritchie possessed, was swung onto the cable and pulled over. He had to stop about every six feet to take off the little wires that held the rope and cable together, and this made it a slow journey. "After the apparatus was in working order, and a number of persons had been brought over, the large rope parted at a splice and let R. A. Beyrans, who was then on the cable, drop into the swift current as far as the steel cable would stretch. The boys dragged him through the water, and over timbers and wires, as they would haul in a catfish, and landed him on the bridge in safety. A heavier cable was then put up and it worked without accident as long as needed. Early on Monday morning I was stationed at the north end of the cable, and in addition to sending out boats we organized a force to extend a cable north on Kansas avenue. J. E. Wilson had charge of this crew, and they worked hard all day in a terrible current, and succeeded in running a cable straight up Kansas avenue past the fire station, and as far as the Methodist Church. I remained at the car all day Monday. Monday night and Tuesday, directing the boats in going after persons who were in distress and bringing them to the bridge. The boats also took out a large quantity of food to people who could not be removed from the houses. MAJOR HARVEY'S HELPERS. "On Tuesday evening I was relieved by E. L. Overton, who took charge and stayed on the north side all of that night. I relieved him Wednesday morning and kept up the same work all of that day, he again relieving me on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning the water had fallen so that our landing had to be established several blocks from the car. Thursday evening we were relieved by the regular authorities of the city and county. While at work we made no attempt to take the names of those who assisted, and the list can never be given entire, as it embraced many men whose names I never learned. I give the following as a partial list of those who worked with me: E. L. Overton, Prof. Orwell B. Towne, Frank Ritchie, Fred Ritchie, Hugh McFarland, C. A. Steele, George Anderson, P. Anderson, Hugh Reed, Conrad Biorke, Carl Stahl, Harden B. Leechman, J. E. Wilson, Ray Gregg, R. A. Beyrans, Ray Gill, Omar Mehl, H. H. Donahue, Samuel Percy, J. Cooper, William Haynes, H. W. Banks, Henry Ogee, Dr. Buck, George W. Reed, Jr., Luther Nellis, Harvey Parsons, Paul Adams, Harry Nichols, Clifford Cunningham, Edward McCann. Jerome Stahl, Frank Stahl, A. B. Smith, Ralph Stahl, K. W. King, J. A. Zimmerman, Louis Hauck, Lu VanLiew, W. C. Goodman, C. O. Fletcher, R. M. Breezy, L. J. Brown, James Faucht, Robert Stone, W. M. Cowles, Kay Miles, Merrill Mills and Lewis Strauss." In concluding the flood chapter, it is only necessary to add that in the two years' lapse of time since the occurrence of the great calamity nearly every trace of its damaging effect has disappeared, most of the houses have been rebuilt, or new ones erected in their place, a system of dikes has been established for protection against future overflows, and both from a business and residence point of view North Topeka has been fully restored. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS EDITED AND COMPILED BY JAMES L. KING TOPEKA, KANSAS "History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples" PUBLISHED BY RICHMOND & ARNOLD, GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 1905. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/shawnee/history/1905/historyo/chapterx20nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ksfiles/ File size: 28.2 Kb