FARMERS IN ERIE VICINITY MOVE FAMILIES AND STOCK
AWAY FROM FLOOD WATER

Charles Brown and Le Roy Crandall are receiving a great deal of praise from the residents of the Wheelock community who they aided in moving by the use of their motor boat Monday night and Tuesday due to the Rock river flood. Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Hargrave, who moved their stock Monday afternoon to the Mrs. Margaret Wolf home were compelled to move it from there as was also Mrs. Wolf early Tuesday morning. It was taken by truck to a farm near Hillsdale. Part of the Hargrave family are staying with Mrs. Wolf and part in the Peter Hussong home.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Klendworth moved from their farm in with their hired man and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Deets,, and also have their stock there. Their three children are staying with their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Crandall. Unless the water rises higher the other families in that community will not have to move their stock or vacate their homes.

The three Wilder tenants, Alney Hargrave, Sherman Hatton and Clifford Warkins who live off the main road are said to have moved their livestock Monday. Mrs. Hargrave and son have gone to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mulcray, near Prophetstown. Her husband was staying at the Homer Johnson home Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. Melvin James were still on their farm Tuesday evening and Harry and Jack James had moved their stock over there and were staying there.

Ralph Dersham moved his livestock over to the James Dersham farm. Clarence Brooker, who resides in a house near the Dersham home along the river stated that he thought he had his house built well up above the high water mark but that there is several inches of water on the floor. He said that the water was 13 inches higher than he had ever known it to be.

The Spring Hill residents, who received their mail through the Erie post office have not been able to get their mail since Saturday. Arthur Martin drove to Denrock Tuesday and then came to Erie on a handcar and took back the Spring Hill mail. He also took a pair of rubber boots to Duane Prentiss, who needed them to wade through the water in the barns. His parents are in Florida. Lewellen Morgan has moved his family to the home of his parents in Port Byron. The Ray Voss family and stock were moved Tuesday from the Mrs. C. C. Wildman farm to the farm occupied by his brother Herman Voss.

Among other families who were compelled to leave their homes Monday or Tuesday because of the high water were William Brooks and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Harper from the former Osborne farm now owned by Mr. Brooks. He is staying with his sister, Mrs. Charles Withrow and the Harpers in the home of her brother, Homer Hardin.

Erie men who went to the rescue of the Raymond Enright and Clayton Seger families Tuesday with a motor boat were Wendell Miller, Wilmer Cant, Clarence Sterenberg and Donald Enright. The last two remained with Mr. Enright and Mr. Seger to help them attempt to drive their cattle to the Robert Cocking home. The women and children of the families are staying with Mrs. Enright’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. I.J. Reisenbigler and in the home of the Seger’s son, Leslie Seger.

The Melvin Joslin family who moved their stock to safety Monday are with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Joslin. The Ira Schaeffer and John Bennett families moved their stock into the stockyards at Erie Monday and are staying with Mr. and Mrs. John Miller, the parents of Mrs. Schaeffer and Mrs. Bennett. Mrs. Harry James is staying in the home of her husband’s brother, Robert James in Erie and Mr. James and son are staying at the farm to look after their stock.
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their stock Monday evening to the Seth Wilson place in Newton, where they had expected to move and they and their family are staying there with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. James Earl have moved their horses to the Tom McCall home near Port Byron and they are staying with their daughter, Mrs. James Conrad and family near Hillsdale. Mr. and Mrs. Arvin Earl are with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Clark near Fenton.

Ed Roeder has moved his stock to safety and he and his family are staying in Erie with Mr. and Mrs. John Heffelfinger. Mrs. Botvid Jensen went to the home of her son Harold in Port Byron Tuesday morning. Mr. Jensen is staying with Mr. and Mrs. Earl Weber whose home near by is surrounded by water but is on higher ground. They took their stock there Monday and the horses then went in water up to their heads.

The Cecil Hargrave family moved their stock to the Mrs. Margaret Wolf farm which though surrounded is on higher ground and the family is staying in the Wolf home.

TELEPHONE EXCHANGE AT ERIE IS BUSY PLACE; TOLL CALLS ARE HEAVY

The Erie Telephone exchange was a very busy place Monday. One hundred and thirty-nine toll calls were made from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 45 of that number were taken in the space of two hours. Approximately 5,000 calls went through the exchange. The 139 calls exceeded those made in any previous day by 42. During the high water only two telephones have been out of order. A large cake of ice from the flood broke a telephone pole and this damage was soon repaired by Manager Claude Davis. Sunday was also a busy day for tolls, as there were 87 toll calls, as compared to 15 on Sunday about 6 years ago. One operator on each trick took care of these and on Monday there were two to a trick. These operators were Mrs. Claude Davis, Mrs. Arlyn Brooks, Miss Berniece Dillon and Mrs. Loraine Dillon. The water was running down Fifth street near the Erie Community high school. It was necessary to close down the school today on account of the lack of sewage disposal.

The dike road southwest of Erie was under water for the first time. At the Ward Besse farm three miles southwest of Erie a large new barn was under water. A car in the bar was hub deep in water. Because of the swift current it was difficult to get to the bar even in a boat.

Traffic on Route 2 was stopped as the water was over the pavement northeast of the Mervin Waite farm and because of the sloping road there and the swift current, it was feared the cars might be washed off the pavement. Earlier in the afternoon the water was said to be over the pavement in front of the Mrs. Margaret Earl farm to a depth of 18 inches, but by evening it had fallen about a foot. There was thought to be an ice gorge in the river back of the farm tenanted by Camiel Laleman.

Sunday evening the Franz Hubbart home on the north side of the Erie bridge was surrounded by water which was rapidly rising. The water was running across the road between Mrs. August Sohrbeck farm house tenanted by Everett Jaecques and the bride at the south end of the pike in Portland township. At the Ward Besse farm on the Riverside road southwest of town the water was nearly up to the top of the dyke road Sunday evening and had risen seven inches in a short time.

At the Mrs. Cora Adams home five miles southwest of Erie the water Monday morning at 7:30 was the highest she had ever seen in during her long residence there, and since 5 o’clock had been rising at the rate of two inches per hour.

INESTIMABLE LOSS FROM FLOOD WATERS IN ALBANY VICINITY

Inestimable damage is being felt in the Albany vicinity from the flood waters, due to the high water from the Rock river breaking through and joining the flood water of Meredocia creek in a wild surge to the Mississippi through the Meredocia bottoms, according to records in the U.S. engineer’s office at Rock Island. The area affected includes the drainage district triangle formed by Erie and Hillsdale on Rock river and Albany on the Mississippi.

Above the Meredocia dike the Rock River flood waters are flowing into the Mississippi through the opened gates at the pumping station, extending an estimated 13 miles to Hillsdale and Erie. Late Sunday the Rock river water in the Meredocia bottoms was 6.9 feet higher than the Mississippi and still rising at the rate of one inch an hour, proving a threat of washing over Route 80. The supervisor of pumping operations in the Meredocia drainage district stated there is nearly five feet of water from Rock river which had not arrived at the pumping station and he expected the water to rise until it washed over the highways.

Pumping operations had been disrupted with approximately three feet of water standing in the pump house. Engineers lowered the Mississippi to facilitate the flow of Rock river water into the Mississippi channel. Many acres of corn are under water in the bottomland and frantic efforts are being made to salvage as much as possible of other unpicked corn in the face of rising waters.

At the Lea Hurley farm, neighbors united to pick corn left on stalks in the field, but were forced by rising water to abandon the job before it was finished. Willis Spears was using a corn picker to harvest the remainder of his corn crop when the water rose so rapidly in the field that he had to quit. The picker is now standing in the field surrounded by water, with much of the corn a total loss. Serious damage has been reported to the modern home of the L.L. Stropes family which is partly under water. Seven farm families have been removed from their homes. The Arthur Kennedy family was moved out of its partially submerged home. The Marshall Moody home is surrounded by water. The tenant family has moved out. A stock raiser, Web Ward, who resides on the Deere farm, has two carloads of cattle ready for shipment, but cannot move the stock because of high water. The Fred Holcomb farm has 100 acres under water. The Stanley George family moved from its flood-threatened farm home to Albany after the sheep and chickens had been moved to the hayloft of the barn. Furniture in the home was transferred to the second floor of the residence.

MUCH DAMAGE IN ERIE FARM LANDS
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…out in many places all the way from the Enright farm to Emmett Crandalls, with a stiff current making it hard even to get through with a motor boat. Four men, Wendell Miller, Bob Keag, Kenneth Cocking and Wilmer Cant, brought them through. Raymond Enright and Joe Besse are staying at the Robert Cocking home to care for their stock at the Cocking farm and at their homes.

The telephone line in this neighborhood went out when several poles were washed out and only a little communication could go through on the line until Friday evening, they got a call through to Erie. The line men worked on it but the current was so strong that they could not make much headway. This was the only line out of use for any length of time, so far as known.

Erie Telephone Service

The telephone service was certainly fine and our exchange cannot be over praised. Always on hand, “service with a smile.”

It was reported that on Monday 5,000 calls were handled through the Erie switch board, including 139 toll calls, which were 42 more class than had ever been handled here in a single day before. In one two hour period forty five long distance calls were made and for three hours there was continuous telephone contact between twenty seven pairs of persons talking. (…..) operators were at the board constantly. These were Mrs. Dorothy Davis, wife of Claude Davis, the company manager, who is the chief operator, and book keeper; Mrs. Arlyn Brooks, Mrs. Loraine Dillon and Miss Berneice Dillon.

This was only one day’s service and throughout the week, day and night, their service has never lagged. Mr. Davis and his crew have also been busy to keep the lines in contact. The long distance line to the Tri Cities was out for a short time but was soon in operation again.

Our mail service, while it has been irregular, was fine under the conditions with the highway flooded, except for about a mile and a half from the Mervin Waite place to a short distance west of town and all country roads covered, the Star route from Sterling, Mrs. Maxwell came to Denrock, and was met there by a post office representative on the section crew car, to bring the mail to Erie, and the Moline carrier, Mr. Schaffer, brought the Moline Dispatch and mail around by Albany Street to the water at Dobers, where it was brought by boat or tractor to the mail man on this side.

Monday was the only day we missed the papers and received two on Tuesday.

Bread trucks and food supply trucks risked the highway to bring food stuff into town. The torrent was so high between Erie and Hillsdale it covered the railway track just out of town and swept away ties and rails for about 800 feet. The water is also over the railway track at the Enright estate farm so a boat can be rowed over it.

At Hillsdale the streets are all under water, and many families right in town have had to move out and only two stores, the drug store, and a general store are in operation. At the high school the basement is full of water and six to eight inches were reported in the gym floor. The new library is also badly damaged.

The raise came so suddenly that some homes were left with rugs on the floors and furniture in place to float around. It was thought for a time that the Hillsdale bridge would be taken but at last reports it still stands.

Water was reported rising yet in Hillsdale Friday but for the most part in the Erie vicinity it was at a stand still or slightly falling.

A dike and drainage ditch flood gate were thought to be the cause of the Friday raise. It is just impossible to relate all the damage done in all vicinities, it is just more than one can imagine. All we know is we here in Erie are just a small island, in a vast swirling pond, they say 15 miles or more across to the Mississippi of havoc and damage to farm and community.

The Burlington railroad brought in 15 car loads of gravel and three cars of cinders Thursday and more came in Friday from the north east, and were left near the was out, to be able to start repair work on the railroad as soon as possible after the water subsides. The section men will start to repair the road bed from the east end and extra crew men will be necessary for the repair work.

On Saturday the pavement was clear except for a little ice, thru to Prophetstown, and cars and trucks are going through. With no buses or freight trucks since Sunday and only a train service from one direction, Erie is rather a quiet place.