Iowa
Old Press
THE TIPTON ADVERTISER
Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa
May 27, 1902
THE IOWA FLOOD OF 1851
The Register a few days ago made the statement that 1857
was "the wet year" in Iowa. But the amount of rainfall
in 1851 exceeded that of '57 several inches. It commenced raining
in the last days of May and rained every day during June, and
occasionally a thunder storm in the first days of July. The
"pour down" in '51 was more frequent and heavier than
in '57, and the water reached a mark that it has not been with in
two feet of since.
The Des Moines river was at a "flood tide" half a dozen
times, reaching from hill to hill, in many places being three or
four miles in width. Steamboats ascending frequently left the
main channel, which is very crooked, where the bottom lands were
prairie, and "cut across lots."
For one month Skunk river was out of its banks and a raging
torrent. Fortunately the crops were all in and growing when the
wet spell set in and as the country was new and free of the now
many noxious weeds and grasses, there was but little need of
cultivation.
In 1857 the wet spell set in early in May, before the crops were
planted, and only a light acreage was put in that season. What
little was planted was put in under difficulties, some farmers
who had their ground ready for seeding marked out their ground by
dragging a log chain across the field, a man following dropping
the corn and covering it with his foot.
This may seem "fishy", but we saw some of our neighbors
do so, and a resident of Casey, as reliable a man as is in the
state, not long ago told us that they put in their corn crop that
season in that way.--Casey Vindicator.
[transcribed by C.D., August 2008]