Floods

floods

In recent times, we have seen some high water, as shown by this June 2014 video. But nothing like those seen in the past. Read on to learn about some of the flooding that we used to experience, beginning with the floods of 1858 that sent almost all of the pioneers of "Table Rock City" to other places.

the nemaha river

1856 - flood impedes a sale of the town

Floods and high water caused a dramatic struggle for Robert V. Muir of the Nebraska Settlement Company as he struggled, money in hand, to get back to the town site to complete a deal to purchase the land by the due date. Here is the story as compiled by Sharla Sitzman Cerra:

THE FOUNDING OF TABLE ROCK

         Table Rock was begun in 1855 when men of the Table Rock Town Company began laying out a townsite. The company consisted of Robert Furnas of Brownville (a future state governor), John Fleming, and James Hinton. Government surveyors had just completed a survey of the Table Rock Township of Pawnee County. Pawnee County was being split off of the western side of Richardson County. The surveyors identified a good mill “seat” on the Nemaha River close by an unusual array of large rocks. The Town Company’s main focus was the mill site. Furnas wrote of a tour of the area, saying “water power” on the Nemaha River “cannot be surpassed.”   A mill was soon up and running, and by 1859 was a considerable success. The site also appeared to have an enhanced value because Table Rock seemed the most likely place to become the seat of the new county. But the election for county seat was lost in the Fall of 1856.

In the meantime back East, Charles Woodbury Giddings had begun a quest for a new home in the west. Giddings was an ordained Methodist Episcopal minister who for 25 years had served in Pennsylvania and New York, most of those years as a circuit rider. It was hard on his health; moreover, the rural areas he served had become economically depressed in the 1850s.   In 1855, as Pawnee County was being surveyed, Giddings lived near Wilkes-Barre, the seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, which lay in the Wyoming Valley. His brother-in-law James Griffing, also an M.E. minister, had been sent to Kansas the year before and the two had exchanged letters about the prospects of Kansas as a new home for himself and members of his flock. In a May 1855 letter, Giddings wrote that he would be bringing other families “of the right stamp” with him. He asked what Griffing thought of the prospects of Kansas becoming a free state. Such an inquiry was not unexpected. The area was going through the aftermath of an incident in Wilkes-Barre in 1853, when federal marshals attempted to arrest a fugitive slave at work in a restaurant; a highly visible and violent encounter followed, and in the aftermath Wilkes-Barre found its citizens provoked and standing on both sides of the fence. The stance of the M.E. Church in Pennsylvania is not known, but in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, the pioneer circuit riders were generally against slavery.

In late 1855 Giddings, paid a visit to his brother-in-law; thereafter, for unknown reasons – probably the volatile political climate in Kansas – Giddings opted against Kansas. After his return, he led the formation of the Nebraska Settlement Company. The company was formed in 1856, although the Articles of Incorporation were not completed until the next year. Giddings became the General Superintendent and Robert V. Muir the Treasurer.

In the Spring of 1856, Giddings and Muir headed west to locate a town site for the new Nebraska Settlement Company. They found that the site they liked best was already occupied – by the Table Rock Town Company. On behalf of the Nebraska Settlement Company, they struck a deal to buy the site from the Town Company. Giddings later dismissed the Town Company’s interests as “more      imaginary than real,” but the price agreed upon -- $1,500 or $1,600 depending on the source -- reflects a healthier view of those interests at the time. An agreement was made that the money would be paid in Table Rock on a certain date that coming winter. Giddings and Muir returned to Pennsylvania to arrange capitalization, ultimately almost $10,000.

Muir returned to the new town that winter with the money to seal the deal. Local legend has it that as the deadline came crashing down, he found the Nemaha River at flood stage with the Townsite Company people on the other side, but fearlessly plunged in and swam across to deliver the money. Muir himself told a different story but no less dramatic.

muir's story

A Pennsylvania newspaper reported Muir's story, gained when he visited there for a Prohibitionist conference. See “Personal and Pertinent,” Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), August 9, 1912, page 6.

At right: Muir photo from a wedding anniversary story that was included with his 1917 obituary. However, at the time of his 1856 journey, he was only 30 years old.

The part about his journey to Table Rock to put the money on the table is in the second section below:

1858 - FLOOD nearly wipes out early settlers

In 1856 and 1857, the first of the Settlement Company’s many families joined the few existing families. Many of the new families settled along the banks of the Nemaha, as well as Taylor Branch and Clear Creek. It probably seemed safe. The Nemaha here was once described, before it was straightened, as the “staid old Nemaha, which usually is as placid as an old maid with a fellow.” However, the old maid had a dark side. The Nemaha flooded kin 1858, creating not only destruction but death. The aftermath of the receding flood waters was disease, and many became critically ill and many died. Table Rock itself not flooded but it was virtually wiped out as a consequence of the floods.

The story as told by Sharla Sitzman Cerra in an application for Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing of the Table Rock Cemetery compiles diaries from local settlers and other information. A fully footnoted versionis at the Network to Freedom application link at right:

Network to Freedom application

It was difficult coming to this new country, trying to farm land that had never been farmed, living in a small log house with cracks “big enough to throw a cat through,” as settler Lydia Griffing later described it, having no trained medical care, having to figure out how to institute everything from a school for the children to church. The difficult life became more difficult when the “Panic of 1857” dried up funding for the Nebraska Settlement Company; banks failed, and cash was scarce. The weather, too, was hard on the settlers. The winter of 1857-8 was severe and then the spring and summer of 1858 brought floods that wiped out homes and farms. One of the settlers of 1857, Juliana Gere, wrote in her journal that they had a “fine prospect” for an abundant vegetable crop, but then the river flooded. Covering their garden under several feet of water. “Many acres” of bottomland were under water, all of the bridges on creeks and rivers had been carried away, the mill dams washed out, and homes leaking. C. W. Giddings described the high water, saying that the Nemaha River valley “was inundated, and the cultivated lands, being on the bottoms, and the cabins of the settlers on the banks of the streams, much damage was done and great suffering prevailed.”

Table Rock was no longer a bright and shining destination. Juliana Gere wrote that covered wagons with emigrant families passed through for destinations elsewhere.

Then came widespread illness in the Fall of 1858. Gere wrote, “I do not wonder that the people are sick. Such a bad smell arises from the decaying vegetables in the black stagnant pools.” Lydia Griffing wrote in her memoirs of 1887 about her first 30 years in Table Rock that the Fall of 1858 was so awful that it was “well remembered by every old settler who was in Pawnee County at that time.” She wrote, “Many suffered for want of care because there were not enough well ones to take care of the sick. Some died.” One day Lydia Griffing herself took sick as she cared for her husband, who had been in bed a week. She said, “We lay there nearly all day, neither of us able to help the other to a drink of water. How parched our tongues were with fever. Our babe so sick, yet we could not care for her.” They were saved when a neighbor stopped by, and stayed to care for them.

C. W. Giddings is often quoted as saying that so many were discouraged that at the end of 1858, “out of 150 families who, during the eighteen months preceding, came to make themselves homes in Table Rock and vicinity, but fifteen families remained.” However, he also in the same text listed the names of 37 men, “nearly all having families” who had come before the Fall of 1858 and stayed despite the hardships.

more references

This is from a history by C.W. Giddings, usually called the founder of Table Rock. The date it was written is uncertain. It appeared in an 1882 volume of histories and people by Andras.

Giddings History of Table Rock

1876 - Lower town HOUSES and "fat" hogs CARRIED AWAY

May 11, 1876 Nebraska State Journal --Lower town submerged, houses carried away.

From the August 26, 1876 Nebraska State Journal, a railroad bridge falls victim to the flood waters. The streets of Table Rock are covered by three feet of water with a current so swift no man could stand in it. Obviously they considered Table Rock to be the Railroad Addition of Table Rock near the depot.

1880 - Flood starts fire

An 1880 flood in Lower Town also caused a fire. This is from a 1957 article written by Nettie Stehlik about the History of Pleasant Valley School.

History of Pleasant Valley School

1880-ish

The railroad drew the residents of Table Rock to the Railroad Addition, "Lower Town." As recounted in the 1882 tome of history and biographies by Andreas:

At times, it seemed as if the upper town would be deserted. The low land, however, was so subject to floods that the citizens came to the conclusion that the old site was the best, and, two years ago, a paper was extensively signed by them, agreeing to remove their buildings and their business interests to the upper town. All except a few houses did so.

1889 - railroad elevated because of floods

This is from a 1934 history of the Bunker Hill neighborhood by Elsie Pepoon.

History by Elsie Pepoon

1897

flood waters hit railroad between table rock and humboldt

April 17, 1897 Nebraska State Journal

1898

the a & N railroad changed the course of its rail lines to deal with long time flooding problems

June 16, 1898

1900 -- a poetic description of the flooding

July 19, 1900 Argus

1902

June 10, 1902 Lincoln Journal Star

1903 - flood not in table rock but affects table rock people

This June 11, 1903 article speaks of flooding in the Armourdale district of Kansas City, Kansas, suffered by friends from Table Rock who were living there.

1904 - again

April 26, 1904 Decatur (Illinois) Herald

Christine Wheeler, William (Peggy) Glenn, and W. G. Matthews homes affected, amongst others.

April 28, 1904 Argus

?? - taylor branch floods?

The photograph immediately above appears to show the approach to the bridge over Taylor Branch, looking east toward Lower town. The view of the bridge itself is obscured. You can see a telephone pole surrounded by water, and through the stand of the trees, if you magnify the view, you can see the windows of the house on the other side of the creek. There is no date. Was this taken in 1915? It's difficult to say; the trees are far more dense in this photograph, but it could be that then, as now, a century later, there were more trees on the west side. Or this is from an earlier time. The brick sidewalk is noteworthy. One ran around the Square and then down the hill to Lower Town and out to the depot. This is Photo 492, colorized by Steve Bixenmann.

1915 - taylor branch floods

Photo 675, shared by Kim Vrtiska

Above -- the north side of the bridge is slightly visible to the right. Photo 424, shared by Kim Vrtiska.

1919 - Brick yard flooded "leaving a mass of smoldering ruins," bridge across taylor branch impassAble, "woodpiles and chickens" moved to safety

Photo 423 - Flood at the depot. Undated, but from the nature of the photo, it is pretty old, probably from before 1900, perhaps representing what the A&N was dealing with in 1898.

Dr. Mccrea DESCRIBES BEING CAUGHT IN A FLASH FLOOD AS HE DROVE HIS BUGGY BACK FROM A RURAL CALL.

FLOOD At the old mill site

Photo 426 - A flood on the Nemaha at the old mill site. The mill reportedly ceased operations in 1900.

Enhancements and crops of this photo that reveal more details of the old mill in the shadows are below.

History of the Mill

Crops and enhancements bring out the details of the old mill that is partially in shadows in the original unretouched photo.

Probably the nemaha - but where & when?

Photo 4. There is no date. The back is marked Eva Linn, who probably owned the photo.

probably the nemaha -- but where and when?

Photo 425. This bridge appears to be the railroad bridge north of Table Rock, but the photo bears no annotation.

The following photograph (Photograph 869) is labeled as train crossing the Nemaha. Looking at the concrete pillars might lead one to think that it is the same bridge, i.e., the bridge above is the railroad bridge north of town. When the picture below was posted on Facebook, the surmise is that it was on the Nemaha 3-1/2 miles north of Table Rock.

floods - taylor branch

date unknown - probably before 1915

Photo 492. This is probably of the bridge into Lower Town. If so, it is probably before 1915; compare the bridge with the bridge in 1915, below.

Photo 492, colorized by Steve Bixenmann to aid in exploring the detail

Details of Photo 492. Look at the bridge, the telephone pole on the north side of the road, and the house to the right in the trees, and compare to the 1915 flood picture below. It appears to be the same bridge, but an earlier time.

1915 flood

Photo 675 is identified as being in Lower Town 1915.

Photo 675, Colorized by Steve Bixenmann for an enhanced view

Here are excerpts of Photo 675 showing detais. The closest house is probably on the lot where Donnie Kalina now lives, which was built and lived in for many years by the Hillers. The Hillers built their house in about 1958.

Photo 424, the original and an excerpt, another view of the flood.

1941 and 1944. RICH SILT LEFT IN 1941, BRIDGE wiped out IN 1944

The 1944 flood took out the "last two" of the bridges over the Nemaha, leaving only the "Luthy" Bridge. This is from the history of the Pleasant Valley School written by Nettie Stehlik in 1957; this appeared in the August 1, 1957 edition of the Argus.