Before the Great Flood of 1993 in Pattonsburg, which led to the relocation of the entire town to its present location, there was another massive flood there in 1883. The Pattonsburg Call somehow got printed despite the flooding and had the story about the flooding, which turned Pattonsburg into the “American Venice.”
June 21st, 1883
Last Saturday (June 16th, 1883), Big Creek began to rise, but only a few of the citizens of the town paid any attention to it, though it was backing into the lake.
Some of the families living between the creek and the lake, however, were a little uneasy, and watched the progress of the water.
At about daylight Sunday morning the citizens were awakened all over the town, and informed that the creek was all over the bottoms north of the Wabash railroad track. We hopped out of bed into our clothes and went over to view the waste of waters. Arrived at the scene, we found that only about 10 inches more water was required to put it over the railroad dump, and that the east end of town was being flooded by the creek bursting over its banks below the railroad bridge.
The water continued rising in the creek until it only lacked two inches of running over the track in the lowest place, when the waters came to a standstill. During all this time, the section hands were working like Turks at the new flood gate, near R.R. Christie’s, where the water was cutting away the railroad dump. They put in railroad rails, car doors, and other things to check the destruction being wrought until the construction train could arrive with stone, and as a last resort, threw in a car-load of coal, which was standing on the side track, which held her until the train arrived and threw in stone and checked the washout.
Sunday night, Grand River began to rise and by Monday morning, could be seen looming up in the distance, and by Monday night had flooded the yards of most of the east side property. The river continued to rise until about 2:00 am Tuesday morning, flooding the first floors of the houses in the lower part of town from 1 to 12 inches, and in a few instances, two feet of water stood on the floors. However, in the northwest part of town, the water did not even reach the yards.
—The water was 10 inches deep at the Main and Second street crossing.
—Several of our citizens sent their families to the country until the water subsided.
—The Burton boys brought their ferry boat over to help move goods from the houses in the east part of town and landed it at the platform in front of Welden & Ford’s. This is the first time a ferry boat has been run across the bottom since the spring of 1844.
—A large number of McFall’s citizens walked down to view the water.
—Several of the boys got “chucked” during the high water.
—Boat riding was the order of the day Monday and Tuesday.
—Serenading parties were out in their boats regaling the citizens with music Tuesday evening.
—Several of the boys indulged in the pleasant pastime of ducking each other.
—Rumor says that the bridges at Greenwell Ford and Gentryville were swept away.
—David and Jesse Groomer say the river was higher where they live than it was ever known before.
—Considerable stock was lost during the flood, on the bottoms.
—E. Henry’s, two miles and a half east of town, lost between three and four miles of fence, and all his crops. He will re-fence and replant as soon as possible.
—John Watson lost several hundred cords of wood.
—R.S. Hasting lost pretty heavily by a considerable amount of his staves, heading, and timber floating away.
—The water was about five feet deep on the floor of Burton’s mill, on the south side of the river.
—Several farmers living on the bottoms moved to Pattonsburg for safety.
—The first train since Sunday morning worked down here from Stanberry this morning, and left for the west again on the regular mail train time.
—Old man Swihart, living in the bottom near the mouth of Big Creek, lost about 20 head of hogs.
—A heavy rain fell yesterday north of us, and another one last night. It is feared Big Creek will be up again.
—A big stretch of the Wabash track is washed out down Fountain Grove.
—Six feet of water reported at Gallatin station.
In conclusion, will say that Pattonsburg, like all other enterprising cities and towns, has had her overflow, and will now proceed to boom, with redoubled efforts. Already signs of improvement are visible. Notice the columns of the Call, and you will see that our merchants are on deck with lots of goods, and will give you more for your money than any other town in northwest Missouri.
By June 28th, 1883, life had gotten back to normal. The Pattonsburg Call printed eight pages that week after having printed four the week before, and nothing else was said about the flood.
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