trees.

The Ohio river, one of the greatest national waterways, 950 miles in length, is formed at Pittsburg by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monogahela rivers, coming from opposite directions. The Allegheny sources are numerous creeks in the mountains of New York, and is fed by hundreds of other tributaries that traverse Western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, draining an area of 13,000 square miles. The sources of the Monongahela are not large streams but they are numerous, especially in Maryland and West Virginia.

The Cheat river, its largest tributary, drains much mountainous country, and its sudden fluctuations are a wonder to not only visitors but the inhabitants along its banks. It is a frequent thing in the early spring or during the rainy season for this stream to rise over thirty feet within twenty-four hours. The Youghiogheny is also an important feeder of the Monongahela. The estimated drainage of the Youghiogheny and its tributaries is 2,100 square miles, the Monongahela and its tributaries 4,900 square miles, making the total watershed of the Monongahela 7,000 square miles, which, added to that of the Allegheny, gives a grand total area of 20,000 square miles drained by the sources of the Ohio river. From the forking of these rivers in Pennsylvania to its mouth at Cairo there are tributaries innumerable, many of which are navigable and at a good boating stage the greater part of the year.

These geographical and topographical situations are important causes which lead to the frequency of floods in the Ohio river. The month of February in the Ohio valley along the course of the river in later years has been looked for with dread. The highest stages of the river, the greatest floods and the most suffering, and great property losses within the past decade have occurred at that time of the year. The melting of snows in the mountains, sudden thawing spells, added to which are the early spring rainfalls alternated with sleet. all combine to bring on these freshets. The encroachments upon the

bed or channel of the river have in a great measure caused a narrowing of the width of its bed. So many large cities, towns and villages are strung out along its shores that the débris from sawmills, cinders and other material by being "dumped" over its banks have confined the rush of the waters to a fastly filling-up canal bed. In fact such has the Ohio river become within the past few years. Great stone pier bridges have been erected in the river bed, dams have been built, and these things combined have had a tendency to yearly increase the danger to the lowlands along the valley.

The greatest floods in the Ohio river were on February 18, 1832; December 17, 1847; February 15, 1883; February 14, 1884, and March 26, 1890. In 1832 the highest stage reached was 64 feet 3 inches; 1847, 63 feet 7 inches; 1883, 66 feet 4 inches; 1884, 71 feet and inch, and in 1890, 59 feet 2 inches. These heights are measured from low-water mark, which is 2 feet and 6 inches above the bed of the channel.

The flood of 1884 exceeded all the others, and at the present writing stands on record as having attained the highest stage. Beginning on the 14th day of December, 1883, it continued rising until noon of February 14th, a space of two months, during which time there was much suffering among the people, loss of life and property. The meteorological causes began at the date mentioned, when the winter's first snow fell throughout the Ohio valley-a fall of a fraction less than an inch, with the stage of water in the Ohio at 10 feet 7 inches at Cincinnati, a minimum to which it did not again decline for a period of over six months.

During the month of December the total fall of snow, sleet and rain, reduced to rainfall, was 5.61 inches, while the highest stage of the river during the month was 494 feet on the 28th, after which it began to decline.

The first two weeks in January were cold, with frequent light snows, with a heavy two days' fall on the 14th and 15th. Cold weather then set in and the river alternately rose and

fell, varying from 15 feet 9 inches on the 29th to 31 feet 3 inches on the 31st, when the great flood of 1884 properly began.

At Cincinnati, at this time, the solidified snow previously fallen was from 18 inches to 4 feet deep, which was packed upon the hills, mountains and valleys of the Ohio river and its tributaries and the smaller streams tributary to the latter. A depth of 10 inches of snow fell in January, and the rainfall of the month was 1.23 inches. From the 30th of January to the 13th of February a general thaw progressed with rain day after day, all combining to affect the river accordingly.

The Ohio river continued rising steadily and rapidly, and at Cincinnati on February 2d had reached a stage of 49 feet 11 inches, having entered the buildings at the foot of Broadway, Main and Walnut streets. The same afternoon there was a heavy fall of rain that carried much of the solidified snow into the river and local tributaries, and a rise again set in that did not cease until noon of the 14th, when it culminated in the highest stage of water at the mouth of the Licking river that had ever been seen at that point by an enlightened people. The total amount of the rainfall on the 4th was 1.35 inches; a dense fog came over the city and in the bottoms became so dense that artificial light was necessary in all buildings south of Third

street.

The thermometer had crept up to 62°; there was a miasmatic feeling in the atmosphere that was stifling, and the general darkness prevailing cast great gloom among the populace. At all river points above there was a heavy rainfall, while the Monongahela and Licking rivers had started on a second freshet and were rising several inches per hour.

The

Daylight the next day found all the buildings fronting on the river between the Suspension Bridge and Main street, and Ludlow and Broadway, invaded by the water. Mill creek bottoms of Cincinnati, as well as the lowlands in Pendleton and Columbia, were submerged, and later in the day the alarming news came that Lawrenceburg and Aurora were partly submerged, the river steadily rising, and grave apprehensions were felt for the security of the levees in front of those cities.

All day on the 5th a steady downpour of rain fell, measuring 1.56 inches, and more rain had fallen in eight hours on the days of the 4th and 5th than fell in four days preceding the same stage of water on February 8, 1883. The river was 20 feet and higher than at the same time of the previous year, and there had been but nine years in which the stage of the water exceeded that at midnight of the 5th.

inch

The Kentucky river, when it pours into the Ohio, prevents the water of the latter from passing off freely, and is thus a factor in producing high water at Cincinnati. At 1 o'clock of the morning of February 6th the levee at Lawrenceburg gave way and her citizens called upon the people of Cincinnati

to come to their relief. The Chamber of Commerce immediately called a meeting, and committees were appointed to adopt measures of relief.

At Cincinnati the water extended above Second street on Sycamore and Broadway, and was two feet deep at Third and Wood streets, while communication with the Suspension Bridge was cut off except by boats. On the 8th the Cincinnati Gas Works became submerged at noon, when the stage of the river had reached 62 feet 6 inches. The next day, at 9 o'clock A. M., the stage of water was 63 feet 7 inches, the high-water mark of December 17, 1847, and by midnight covered the high-water mark of February 18, 1832, 64 feet 3 inches.

Heavy rains again set in at headwaters on the 10th, and all the streams again began rising. Point Pleasant, Va., was entirely inundated, there being four feet of water in parts of the town that had escaped the flood of 1883, while the back-water from the Ohio extended up the Kanawha fifty miles, inundating farm houses and villages of the valley and entirely wrecking the track of the Ohio Central Railroad. The width of the Kanawha varied from three to five miles. Between Ripley and Cincinnati, all houses on both banks of the river, that remained in their places, were invaded or entirely covered by water, and some towns were nearly washed out of existence. The Ohio backwater extended up the Little Miami to Milford, with the Little Miami also rising.

On the night of the 12th a wind-storm from the south rocked from their foundations many houses that had withstood the force and buoyancy of the current. Dayton and Bellevue, Ky., were invaded and the greater part of the northwest portion of Covington was covered. There were 13,000 applicants for relief at Newport-half of the city being under water.

On the 13th a decided cold wave set in throughout the Ohio valley, and this gave assurance that its climax was near. The temperature grew colder and colder at Cincinnati, lowering to 20°, and the great flood of 1884 reached its maximum at noon on the 14th of February, when the stage of water was 71 feet and of an inch. The situation at Cincinnati at this time was that not a street in Pendleton was free from water, and the line extended up Deer creek valley to the foot of the Highland House Inclined Plane. Up the Mill creek valley it had spread eastwardly until Lincoln Park was entirely covered, and reached Baymiller street or Clark.

The water first licked the streets north of Pearl on Race, Vine, Walnut, Main and Sycamore streets, and the first floors of buildings at the north side of Lower Market were covered with water to Broadway. The water from the Ohio river on the south, and from the Mill creek bottoms on the west, met and commingled at the southwest corner of Fourth and Mill streets. It extended above Longworth street on Hoadley, and from the west

on Sixth covered the railroad tracks that lead out of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad passenger depot. On Eighth street the water extended eastwardly to Harriet. South of Third street and west of Rose, extending northwestwardly past Clark and Baymiller streets, all avenues were navigated by skiffs and small boats. Mill creek bottom was one bay of water so deep that the largest steamboat that navigates the Ohio river could have passed over.

The Licking and Ohio rivers met in Newport at the corner of Columbia and Madison streets; half of the city of Newport was under water, and part of the Newport and Covington Suspension Bridge that spans the Licking river was covered by water several feet deep.

The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad established boat communications, carrying their traffic to places between Cincinnati and Aurora. There was not a railroad track entering Cincinnati which was not submerged, except that of the Cincinnati Northern or Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad. Merchants in the bottoms had at great labor and expense removed their wares to places of safety, the various stock-yards ceased doing business, the river business for steamboats was entirely suspended, and the boatmen royally and heroically gave their time and labor to the saving of property and the rescue of people and live-stock. Boats were chartered by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Relief Committee, and carried clothing

and provisions to the destitute and suffering at points above and below Cincinnati.

Cincinnati contributed $96,680.12 for the relief of flood sufferers, this amount being realized from private subscription. The sum of $97,751.22 was contributed by persons not citizens of Cincinnati; all this money was applied, with the exception of $5,260.74, which was turned over to the Sinking Fund Commission of Cincinnati.

The fall of 1889 and the first three months of 1890 were remarkable for the steady and heavy rainfall. This, of course, produced much water, and during February, 1890, it was feared that Cincinnati would experience another flood. There had fallen but little snow in the mountains, and that was favorable; yet there were two good-sized freshets, and of such proportions as to cause much alarm and apprehension throughout the Ohio valley. The greatest damage, however, this section of the country escaped; but the Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers, rising to an unprecedented stage at the same time the Ohio and its tributaries were bank-full, caused the Lower Mississippi to reach the highest stage recorded in history, causing great suffering, privation, loss of life and damage to homes all along the Mississippi valley from Cairo to New Orleans. highest stage reached by the Ohio river during the spring freshet in 1890 was on March 26th, when the marks at the city water works at Cincinnati indicated 59 feet 2 inches.

With the possible exception of the first bank riot that occurred in 1820 upon the suspension of the Miami Exporting Company, and on the occasion of the second suspension on the 10th of January, 1842, of the same organization, Cincinnati has never witnessed such violations of law, defiance of authorities, and so much bloodshed as attended the great Hamilton County CourtHouse riot on the night of March 28, 1884, and continued several days, there being open conflict between the militia and police on one side, and an excitable, yet determined, lawless mob upon the other.

The circumstances that led to this most unfortunate affair was the trial for murder of Wm. Berner, who killed his employer, Wm. Kirk.

It was one of the most outrageous assaults upon society, and a dastardly, cold-blooded crime that unsteadied the nerves of the populace, causing excitement to run high, and incensed all law-abiding citizens when the case came to trial by the methods pursued by criminal lawyers, who sought to perjure witnesses, bribe juries, and resorted to openhanded means to have their client acquitted against all principle of law or justice.

The newspapers published the proceedings of the trial in detail. The court-house was, during the examination, crowded to its capacity. The methods resorted to by the

The

lawyers was the subject of general conversation, and culminated in there being called at the great Music Hall, on the evening of March 28, 1884, of a mass-meeting of citizens. At this meeting speeches were made by Dr. Andrew C. Kemper, Judge A. G. W. Carter (since deceased), and General Andrew Hickenlooper, who each denounced in strong terms the methods pursued in acquiring a verdict. It was here asserted that the verdict was acquired by the cunning and adroitness of lawyers known for their legal talent. Five hundred and four people had been called to form a jury of twelve. It was a self-confessed murder, a murder committed deliberately for the sake of robbing a man of $285, the proceeds from the sale of a horse; and had been planned weeks beforehand and then coolly consummated. The criminal lawyers were denounced as equally culpable of violation of law and order as the murderer. jury had only returned a verdict of manslaughter after hearing Berner's self-confession, and it was openly alleged in the speeches at the mass-meeting that the criminal lawyers were instrumental in securing, by bribery and other nefarious methods, such a verdict.

The

Resolutions were adopted condemning the verdict. Excitement ran high; but while the speeches were being made by three of the most honored and respected citizens, there

was a death stillness. Every word uttered was weighed. Every sentiment expressed seemed to find endorsement from every person in that crowd of at least six thousand souls.

Immediately after the meeting, as the masses were surging out upon Elm street, some one in the crowd shouted, "Fall in! Let's to the jail!" and a great mob from the meeting proceeded directly to the county jail in the court-house on the Sycamore street side, above Court street.

On the way the mob was increased by hundreds of others. Upon reaching the jail it was surrounded by a howling, angry crowd. A piece of joist was procured, and with it the basement doors, at the foot of the stone steps, were battered down. Bricks and stones were hurled by men in the street above at the windows. Clubs, huge pieces of timber, crow-bars, and other weapons were quickly procured and passed down to the men who were at work upon the heavy outside entrance doors of the jail, and it at last yielded, the work being done speedily. The crowd then poured into the jail office, and there found other obstructions in the matter of stone walls and heavy iron grated doors.

The

Morton L. Hawkins, the county sheriff, and his few deputies faced the mob upon their entrance between the outer and inside doors. They were powerless to stem the fierce human tide, and besides the sheriff had given orders to his officers not to use their weapons on the mob, believing that such proceeding would only make bad worse. mob completely filled the interior of the jail, yelling and searching for the murderer they had come to hang. They filled the corridors, and a force of men succeeded in so forcing the iron grated door that it at last gave way, and the mob ran up the winding stone stairway to the cell rooms, peering into each cell and demanding of other prisoners the whereabouts of the murderer whom they sought.

While this was going on within a squad of fifteen policemen arrived on the scene and began clearing the jail, meeting with but little success, as they were set upon by the mob and hurled to one side as though they were not there. At 9.55 P. M. the fire-bells sounded the riot alarm. This brought people to the scene from all sections of the city, and they turned in with the mob, the greater majority being in sympathy. It called the police from their posts of duty and the various stations; and through good manage ment they were formed above and below the jail in two sections, and, headed by the patrol wagons, advanced upon the crowds assembled on Sycamore street, in proximity to the jail. The crowd outside was estimated to be between nine and ten thousand. The patrol and police advancing in two solid columns caused a stampede, the rioters escaping through side streets. Ringleaders and some of those who had been active inside the jail were taken in the patrol wagons to the station houses. The patrols were permitted to leave amid much jeering and denunciatory

language, and after their passage the gap was closed up and another onslaught made upon the jail the rioters in the meantime having armed themselves with axes, stones and bricks.

Two or three attacks were made upon the jail, and about midnight a hand-to-hand conflict between the police and the rioting mob occurred inside. The police had succeeded in gaining an entrance to the jail through the court-house, going in on Main street. By the same means the militia had been admitted, and were stationed on the platform at the head of the cell-room stairs. Inside the mob had reached the gates separating the prisoners' cells from the office. These were broken down with sledge-hammers, and the mob had entered. They were in hand-to-hand conflict with the police, and overpowered them, making a grand rush up the stone stairway. Just then the militia stationed on the platform fired into the crowd. Two of the militia and four officers were shot. None of the mob were injured, but the latter retreated, giving the alarm to those on the outside. Fires were then started in the jail-yard and around the court-house. A barrel of petroleum was rolled into a cellarway where burning firebrands had been cast. The mob again assaulted the jail, gaining admittance in reinforced numbers, and armed with every conceivable kind of weapon except firearms.

The militia again fired upon them, using blank cartridges, although this was not known to the mob, and, aided by a largely reinforced police force, again drove the mob to the street. From the Court Street armory the militia were reinforced, gaining admittance to the jail through the court-house, the mob not up to this time making any attempt to effect an entrance to the jail by way of the court-house.

Upon their being repulsed, however, a great crowd rushed over toward Main street and down town. Simultaneous attacks were made upon the entrances of several gun stores, and the places completely gutted of firearms, powder, cartridges and other ammunition. In the meantime others of the mob had fired the jail and the court-house, in a score of places, coal oil and powder being liberally used, and neighboring stores and groceries being sacked for the purpose. Affairs were assuming a serious and critical aspect. The light of the fires illuminated the whole city, causing hundreds of other citizens, upon the hilltops and in the suburbs, to hasten to the scene.

Immediately after the sentence had been pronounced that afternoon the murderer Berner had been hurried to Columbus, going in a buggy to Linwood, where the train was taken. He was in custody of Dominick Devots, a watchman or deputy sheriff, and through the latter's negligence the prisoner managed to escape from him while the train was at Loveland. All these things the rioters of course were ignorant of. They had been told by Sheriff Hawkins that the prisoner was not in jail upon the first attack, but this was looked

upon as a subterfuge to cause them to cease their violence. The fires around the jail and court-house had been put out, and towards early morning the mob, almost worn out with their labors, thinned out, but hundreds remained about the scene throughout the night, and as the hours approached the working hour their numbers were increased.

All day long Saturday the militia and police were on duty, and the court-house and jail were surrounded by tired-out but determined men, and thousands of others drawn there by the excitement of the occasion.

There were no attempts at attack made during the day, but Saturday night for several blocks above and below to the east and the west of the jail and court-house the streets were choked by rioters who had greatly increased their strength, and another attack on the jail was made.

This proved to be the most serious attack of all, and the most disastrous. Admission was gained to the court-house. The militia in the streets were held in a hollow square formed under the masterful leadership of some of their number. Once inside the court-house, the work of demolition began. The whole magnificent stone building seemed to become ignited at once. The whole place was gutted and the valuable records of three-quarters of a century's accumulation were destroyed.

The building burned to the ground. The governor of the State had called out the militia of the State, and they were arriving by every train. Their appearance upon the scene seemed to more aggravate and incense the mob, and being fired upon a bloody riot began in the streets, men being mowed down like grass under the keen sweep of a scythe.

Captain John J. Desmond, of the militia, was shot and killed inside the burning courthouse, while leading an attack on the mob. Many prominent citizens received wounds from stray shots of the militia. Windows, doors and even walls of houses in the vicinity of the riot to this day bear evidence of that time of terror and bloodshed.

United States Secretary of War Lincoln ordered to the scene the United States troops, and their appearance seemed to have the desired effect, as the rioters gradually dispersed. The result was, however, that 45 persons were killed and 125 wounded.

Berner, the cause of all this terrible loss and destruction to life and property, was recaptured late on Saturday afternoon in an out-of-the-way house in the woods on a hill

side near Loveland. When captured by Cincinnati detectives, aided by the marshal of Loveland, he was coolly enjoying a game of cards, and was unaware of the riot and the attack upon the jail. He was taken to Columbus and lodged in the State penitentiary under the sentence that had been passed upon him on the 26th day of March of confinement for twenty years.

The Jail Riot of 1848.-The most disastrous jail riot preceding that above related by Mr. Millar, in the history of the city, occurred in the summer of 1848, the details of which are given in the Reminiscences of Judge Carter, who is alluded to in the preceding article. Two returned volunteers (Germans) from the Mexican war, who were boarding in a German family consisting of a man and wife and daughter of eleven years of age, were arrested by the parents on the charge of having committed a horrible outrage upon their child. At the examination at the old court-house, the bed-clothes and under-garments of the little girl were shown covered with blood, which, with her testimony and that of the parents, so frenzied the spectators that it was with difficulty that the sheriff, Thomas J. Weaver, could lodge them in the jail, and then had to call in the service of the Cincinnati Grays and Citizens' Guards to protect it from the mob.

That night the mob made an attack upon the jail. The sheriff first tried expostulation but this was useless. Then he ordered the military to fire with blank cartridges, which only the more enraged them. Finally he repeated the order to fire, with ball, when eleven persons fell dead, some of them innocent bystanders, and the mob dispersed.

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But," writes the judge, the sequel. I was the prosecuting attorney at the time, and know of what I speak. At the next term of court a bill of indictment against these poor volunteer soldiers was unanimously ignored on the plain and simple ground of their entire innocence. They had served their adopted country, and were hard-working, industrious, honest men. They had been the victims of these Germans, who, because they could not induce them to give up their land warrants entitling them each for honorable service to 160 acres of land, had conspired with their little daughter to get up and maintain this awful charge. After their discharge there was a hunt after their guilty prosecutors to lynch them, when it was found that father, mother and daughter had disappeared and were never heard of after."