The flood of '52

 Here and there, we are reminded that over the centuries of human population in what we know as Indiana, there is occasional heavy rain. As the purpose of the Fairfield 200 blog is to acknowledge two of those centuries as our history, it’s worth noting that flooding caused our demise.

Flooding elsewhere. But in 1852, it’s doubtful anyone blamed the problem on Fairfield, although they suffered all the same. This dispatch published in an outpost paper in Aurora (Dearborn Co.) called the Independent Banner:

A deluge of rain!

“The heavy and continued rains of Wednesday and Thursday (Dec. 25-26, 1852) in the Valley of the two Miamis caused a sudden rise of water in those streams and their tributaries, which yesterday swept in a flood over their banks, carrying away fences, out-houses, dams, mills, lumber and in many places, bridges in its course.

“A larger portion of the Eaton Railway is submerged and several bridges carried away. The Venice bridge on the Brookville and Oxford Pike was so obstructed with floating drift as to prevent it being traveled through.

“The passenger train on the Hamilton Railway that left yesterday with a large number of passengers, passed the bridge beyond Hamilton when a messenger on horseback announced to the conductor that the flood had risen to such a height and bore with such force on the middle pier of the Twin Creek Bridge that it had burst it asunder, and that the adjacent embankment in many places had been washed away.”

In another column:

“At Connersville the river at that point was high and rising rapidly and the water had come so near the telegraph wire which extends over the river that it had to be taken down to prevent the driftwood from carrying it off.”

* * *

Near Fairfield, while the covered bridge was still 2 decades in the future, one assumes a bridge across the river existed, and it probably washed out. A mill on the river there was destroyed (see clip at right).

The Brookville American, on Jan. 7, 1853, published an article saying the Whitewater Canal had been damaged and would be repaired and in working order within a short time.

“The canal must and will be repaired. And it can be done in three months as well as nine. Then there will be six months for the mills and merchandise to be making money – and six months to collect toll. Repair quick and $40,000 in tolls will be saved to the canal and ten times as much to the business of the valley.”

The lot of damage occurred at Cambridge City. “The destruction of private property has been immense.” Serious damage also occurred at a feeder dam near Harrison.

A woolen factory and bridge were destroyed at Laurel, The paper said that “it was supposed in January 1847 that the destructive flood that occurred on the first day of that month was probably a centennial visitor.”

The problem was, people believed it and built their structures along the river assuming it couldn’t happen again. “The ruin and desolation cannot be particularized.”

The paper went on to speculate that farming methods of the time, the digging of drainage ditches, was messing with the ecology of the swamps near the rivers and that they could expect more flooding in the future, perhaps every year. It would be many years before they learned their lesson about tampering with the river.

In the same article, the paper said the Spear and Stevens paper and flouring mills would be repaired as soon as they had the money. The paper said the Spears mill had been damaged several times in the previous 5 years and invoked some patriotic zeal toward the challenge.

“Some Generals by an adroit maneuver, turn defeat into victory. Some men by commercial failure thereby learn to lay a sure foundation for future success and final wealth. In others, their real resources and true greatness are never developed until they are brought out by adverse fortunes.”

Amen.

I don’t know specifically where the Venice bridge was located, but it might have been the one at the state line east of Bath. That bridge was dismantled and rebuilt in Butler County.

LINK TO THAT HERE