Thursday, November 29, 1900
THE FLOOD OF 1900
Rainfall at Marlinton 4.88 inches. All move to the second story.
An epoch-making flood occurred last Sunday, and the town passed a sleepless night. After a rain of several days, a regular downpour came on Sunday, and the wiseacres of the town shook their heads sagely and predicted a flood if it kept up the pace. Sunday night came on and the town was moist.
About 10 o’clock that night, conditions in the town were barley tolerable. Knapps Creek came down and flooded nearly the entire town. It was at least 30 inches higher than during the flood of 1898. This was due in part to the railway fill. The river lacked an inch of being as high as in 1898.
The flood will be classed as one of the great floods of these streams. The bottom in which a part of Marlinton is built was flooded to a greater depth than any time since 1877. About 10 o’clock, the false work which was supporting the track at the Knapp’s Creek crossing went out, leaving the ties held up by railing. The spans sagged down in the middle. Across this fragile structure, men began to walk early in the morning….
The back water ran into the residence of H. A. Yeager and came up to the floor of all the houses in the central part of the town. A good many persons moved out. Mrs. S. B. Scott, who has been very ill, was moved to her father, H. A. Yeager’s house
The post office was surrounded with water several feet deep. W. W. Tyree had a big gray horse which was standing up to his sides in water. To make him more comfortable he was led into the post office. A dog which had taken refuge under the building was saved by cutting a hole through the floor.
A good deal of boardwalk was moved and while there was no very serious damage done, the town presented a very desolate appearance Monday morning…
C. A. Yeager lost a carriage. A big pile of driftwood formed in front of the public schoolhouse…
There have been no trains since Sunday. Fort Spring tunnel caved in, and an engine was derailed in the Lewis tunnel. There was a landslide just below Clendennin covering the track for some 70 feet, eight feet deep.
The faculty of Captain Frazier, the superintendent of construction, for getting work done is simply enormous. His considerate ways have made him the popular idol of his men, and what he says goes. When the water played havoc with the railroad, people simply said that he would have it straightened out in a very short time.
A FLOOD SUFFERER
Ah, distinctly, I’ll remember, it was in the same November,
And the rain was pouring as it never poured before,
And we sat there without speaking,
Listening to the leaking, leaking –
Watching pools a-forming on the spotless kitchen floor.
Suddenly there came a tapping as of someone smartly rapping,
Rapping with a sledge or something, on the panels of the door.
“What is that element disturbing,
Like a drinking man from Durbin,
Pounding on my kitchen door?
Quoth the madam, “Go and see.”
“Twas a spruce tree from the mountains
Hurried hither by the fountains,
Which had bubbled up spontaneous
From the showers’ steady pour;
Then the madam shrieked, imparting,
“Be that tree our sign for starting,
Take me from this house this instant,
Take me to the nearest mountain!
Oh, why did I ever marry?
Take me, take me, I implore!”
“Get upon my back,” I shouted.
Then, with tottering steps I plouted –
In the darkness through the water –
Plouted, plouted to the shore,
Sleepy, sober, drenched and sore.
There we waited until morning,
And the blessed daylight dawning,
Showed us then the flood receded
And that everything we needed,
Was to have sat tight and waited
For the flood to have abated.
Wondered why we let the water,
Run us out the night before?
Quoth the madam, “Never mind.”
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE PESSIMIST
He didn’t like the world;
“Tis cruel and crass,” said he.
“All men are base or coarse,
Unfit to stand with me.”
“I’ll quit the crowded ways,
I’ll leave the noise and strife;
I’ll seek a hermit’s cave
And settle there for life.
“My own companionship
Is all that I shall claim –
It only may I hold
Without a pang of shame.”
And so, he found a cave
And there he hid his face,
And bade the world farewell
The thoughtless world and base.
At last men learned of this
And, with becoming grace,
Admitted that he’d made
The world a better place.
