STONE ERECTED
AUG. 18, 1932
J.C. McNEALEY
JUDGE W.R. WHITE
DR. C.E. HOLZER
J.R. GWINN
WALTER WISE
This simple granite pillar, erected August 18, 1932, has high water marks for three of the great floods of the Ohio River:
Feb. 11, 1884 at 63'11"
March 17, 1907 at 58'
March 30, 1913 at 66.5'
Little did they know when they erected this remembrance to the unrelenting floods of the mighty Ohio River, that in just fiver years, the greatest of them all would devastate the entire Ohio River Valley, from Pittsburgh to Cario on the Mississippi, and indeed the entire state of Ohio, as unrelenting rains in January 1937, flooded every creek and river in the territory. It crested 14 feet above the flood wall.
HIGH WATER
MAR 7 1907 58 ft 9 in
From
Ohio History comes this brief account of the 1907 flood:
"All rivers flowing southward into the Ohio River reached flood stage during March 14-17, 1907. More than 4 inches of rain fell across the southern third of Ohio during March 12-14, with the heaviest rain, 5 to 6 inches, in a band from Cincinnati eastward to Athens and Noble County. There were 32 deaths reported in Ohio. Dozens of homes in Athens were swept away, overturned, or lifted off their foundations by the raging Hocking River. There were 15 deaths along the Hocking River at Athens and Nelsonville.
At Waverly, the Scioto River washed out every railroad leading into the city. Six hundred people were forced from their homes in Zanesville. The Miami River reached flood stage from its upper reaches at Sidney downstream through Dayton, Miamisburg, and Hamilton, causing major damage in many neighborhoods.
As the flood waters moved into the Ohio River, a flood extended downstream from Pittsburgh past Cincinnati. Six people drowned at Steubenville. At Marietta, the Ohio River rose 30 feet in two days, reaching the highest level since 1884 and leaving 5,000 homeless. Portsmouth was inundated by the flood, but with temperatures reaching 70 degrees on Sunday March 17th, “thousands took advantage of the fine weather to row about the city’s streets.”
HIGH WATER
MAR 30 1913 66 1/2 FT.
Also from
Ohio History comes this brief account of the 1913 flood, which was particularly horrific and devastating:
"The statewide extent of death and destruction in the Flood of 1913 exceeds all other weather events in Ohio history, justifying the title of “Ohio’s greatest weather disaster.” Rainfall over the state totaled 6-11 inches and no section was unaffected. The death toll was 467 and more than 40,000 homes were flooded."
There has been much written about the record setting and wide spread flood of 1937. The waters breached many of the flood walls that had been erected in the aftermath of the 1913 flood, and today even higher and stronger flood walls have been erected in places like Portsmouth, Ohio, and other towns along the length of the Ohio River.
Once again this brief account rom Ohio History of the 1937 flood:
"The greatest volume of water ever known to pass along Ohio’s southern shores flooded all Ohio River communities during the last two weeks of January 1937. Ohio River levels on January 26-27 were the highest known from Gallipolis downstream past Cincinnati. Crests were 20 to 28 feet above flood stage and 4 to 9 feet above previous records. Six to 12 inches of rain fell in Ohio during January 13-25, 1937, totals never before or since experienced over such a large area of Ohio. January 1937 remains as the wettest month ever recorded in Ohio."
HIGH WATER
FEB 11 1884 63 ft 1 in
The first of these floods, in 1884, marked on this pillar, is one of the most interesting in terms of the history of Gallipolis. Due to some unique geographic features, the town itself, though completely surrounded by water, was left largely untouched. It thus became a haven for others and the center for a wide-spread relief effort in both rescues and in rebuilding during the long recovery period.
So, I've chose to include here some excerpts from an extensive history of the 1884 Ohio Flood, pertaining to Gallipolis, though there are much more detailed accounts than presented here.
Excerpted from
Vance, John L. The great flood of 1884 in the Ohio Valley, University of California: Los Angeles 1884. [With the subtitle: The rise and fall of the waters from Pittsburgh to Cairo ... together with useful and important information and statistics. Also, the work of the Gallipolis relief committee]
[Feb 6] At Gallipolis, the river had risen five feet in twenty-four hours, and was still advancing three inches an hour, and lacking only eight feet of February pth, 1883. The creeks of Gallia County were all reported full and over-flowing. The rain had fallen incessantly for twenty-four hours. The thermometer marked fifty-eight degrees, and there was no mistaking the indications. . . . [Gallipolis] was entirely surrounded with water, bv Mill Creek emptying into the Ohio above, and Chickamauga Creek below, their waters uniting between the town and the hills behind, and the broad, sweep-ing river in front, but the city itself [was] above water. . . .The City of Gallipolis, not being a sufferer by the flood, and being but little inconvenienced thereby, has no tale of cruel devastation and loss to be told. Her part in that thrilling and never-to-be-forgotten drama was that of the "Good Samaritan" "The Angel of Mercy" hence, what we shall say of her comes appropriately here. Being one of the oldest and most favorably known towns on the river, and with her sons and daughters scattered over every State and Territory in the Union, it is with pardonable pride that she rejoices in being the ONLY REALLY HIGH-WATER TOWN OF NOTE IN THE OHIO VALLEY. Providence so decreed, and so it is. It is simply the statement of a cold and solid fact in this connection. She did not survey the situation, however, with a cold and unsympathizing heart, nor lurn deaf ears to the wailing cries of the distressed ones around her.
If Providence designed and nature decreed that there should be refreshing and fertile oases in the arid desert, and Gibraltern rocks in mid-ocean if there should be a balm for every wound, a rose for every piercing thorn, and a silver lining to every desolating cloud, it is not too much to imagine that Gallipolis had as important a part to play, and as important a trust to fulfill, as did the demon of destruction turned loose in the Ohio Valley to smite, blight, and strew in mangled wreck the peaceful and happy homes that were strung as pearls on a silver strand from the Monongahela and Allegheny to the Mississippi. If this was the mission of Gallipolis, in the great flood of 1884, when towns upon towns, and villages and hamlets were hemmed in and engulfed by hundreds, and naught but lamentation and woe ascended from their housetops, then indeed did she fill her mission well, and was sacred to the trust reposed in her. Her hands are clean and her conscience clear. She asks not even commendation or approval. It was but her simple duty, and she did it without ostentation, her only pride being in the fact that she was in a situation to render aid. Her first acts of kindness began with those closest and most immediately related, Point Pleasant, Addison, Cheshire, Chambersburg, Millersport, Athalia, and extending up and down the river as far as her arms could reach. Private subscriptions enabled her to do this, until aid from the interior began to flow in for her use. The City Council made an appropriation of $500 immediately, and the Board of Health and Township agreed to take care of any of our own people living in the bottoms around us, and who were sufferers or being discommoded, and in need of assistance. But it is not our purpose to go into the details of the work of the Relief Committee. This part of the work has been assigned to a gentleman intimately associated with the work, and who is acquainted with every step of the committees, in their arduous and trying undertakings, and will constitute a chapter by itself.