The Floods of February 1883

The desolation caused by two major floods in the 20th century has eclipsed the significance of similar disasters which occurred during the prior century.

Yet, in February 1883 - 120 years ago last month - Terre Haute residents were forced to cope with two severe floods in the same month.
During the first week of February 1883, rains pushed the Wabash River to 23 feet above the low water mark as measured at the Vandalia Railroad bridge at Sycamore Street.

A measurement of 14 feet or above was considered "flood stage."

Farms were flooded and water spilled into the city. Residences on Ninth and 10th streets, between First Avenue and Tippecanoe Street., and along the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railway Company right-of-way had to be vacated.

A sudden freeze halted what appeared to be certain catastrophe. By Feb. 13, the river descended to 13 feet above the low water mark and recovery seemed probable.

Then the temperature rose and torrents unleashed once more. The downpour and melting ice combined to raise the water level as fast as six to seven inches each hour. By 3 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 14, the river spilled over its banks into the bottom lands.

Farmers were better prepared for the second inundation but community residents were not. Cellars and wells filled and dozens of families abandoned their homes, including a few who had just moved back in after vacating them a week before.

Water converted city streets and railroad right-of-ways into canals. Transportation east of 14th Street was impossible except by boat. The National Road was impassable east of 18th Street. Chauncey Twaddle's skiff often came to the rescue.

South of Poplar, 13th Street was buried under four-to-five feet of water. The Terre Haute Car Works property on South 13th Street was transformed into a lake.

Though rails were covered by several inches of water and some traffic was diverted to avoid dangerous trestles, railroad service to and from Terre Haute continued until Sunday, Feb. 18, when the water level reached 26 feet at the Vandalia bridge.

By that time portions of the Indianapolis & St. Louis track between Terre Haute and Paris had been washed away and its bridge over the Wabash was beginning to crumble.

Terre Haute Water Works, immediately north of the I&SL bridge at Tippecanoe Street, was engulfed as nearly 100 men frantically filled gunny sacks with sand to protect the engine room. The river was at least 18 inches higher at the waterworks than at the Vandalia Bridge.

At 3 p.m. on Sunday the levee at the Greenfield bayou succumbed, flooding several thousand acres.

When the water level began to slowly subside on Sunday evening, spectators crowded to the river to survey the submerged landscape. The Terre Haute Express estimated that more than 15,000 observers were along the river front.

As the waters receded, a debate ensued as to whether the flood of 1883 equaled or exceeded the flood of August 1875. Official statistics were not available. On Aug. 3, 1875, the Terre Haute Express reported that the river was 25 feet, 8 inches above the low water mark. However, some argued that it eventually reached 27 feet, 6 inches in 1875.

One experienced riverman noted that the point of measurement made a difference:

"After the 1875 flood, the Indianapolis & St. Louis company filled up the channel with thousands and thousands of cubic yards of stone to insure the safety of their bridge piers. This was done year after year for seven or eight years.

"Why, I have known the time when just below the middle piers of that bridge there was 60 feet of water at the low water mark. Now, at the same stage of the river, you can see the stone rip-rap showing above the surface.

"Moreover, since 1875, the bottoms north of the waterworks and above the old Early slaughter house have been cleared out.

"Thus, the river will measure three or four feet higher at the Indianapolis & St. Louis bridge than at the Vandalia pier several blocks south.

"Before the Civil War, the river was two or three squares east of where it is today just north of the waterworks. When the Terre Haute & Alton railroad built the grade for its bridge [known in 1883 as the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railway bridge and, later, as the Big Four bridge], the set of the river gradually changed.

"The current slowly washed away the ground from the west bank of the river and deposited it on the east side and caused a change in the set.
"I think the river is as high, or higher, than it was in 1875."

The flood of June 1858, which destroyed the original Terre Haute & Alton Railroad bridge as well as the National Road grade between Terre Haute and Macksville (now West Terre Haute), redefined construction and engineering guidelines.

The high water level mark in 1858 exceeded by two feet the highest level of the "great flood of 1828," then believed to be the worst ever to strike the Midwest.

The most notorious flood in Vigo County occurred following the March 23, 1913, Easter Sunday tornado. Twenty-one people were killed in one week by the two storm-related phenomena. Four deaths were assigned to the flood, diminishing the historical importance of all earlier deluges.

On March 26, 1913, the Wabash attained a record 31 feet, 6 inches. At its peak two days later, it reached 31 feet, 10 1/2 inches.

Thirty years later, it crested at 30 feet, 6 inches on May 21, 1943, requiring the evacuation of Dresser and most every dwelling in West Terre Haute.