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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1924)
lattemoutb oucnal PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA, M ONLAY. JUNE 16, 1924. NO. 97 3 CITY VISITED BY CLOUD BURST AT EARLY HOUR TODAY WITH HEAVY LOSS HEAVY WATER FALL FOLLOWED BY FLOOD IN THE BUSINES SECTION THE EQUAL OF ANY IN YEARS PAST. Main Street a Raging Building Occupied by Con Tschkert Wrecked, Rear of the Ebersole Building Caved In and Basement at the Ford Garage Filled when Wall Breaks From Thursday's rally The worst rain storm of many years swept over this locality at an earl; hour this morning and reached the proportions of a cloudburst, with the result that Washington and Chi cago avenues and Main street were rillea with a raging torrent of water that for two hours tore its way through the city and left in its wake the ioss ii several thousand dollars to the business men of the city and the residents along the two ave nues. The rain comm shortly be fore 3 o'clock and soon the rain was falling in sheets that offered the . truing that the sewers would be to cop with the flood water that was pouring down the hillsides Into the- low places and bent on fol . wine be natural waterways. At 3:3 the sewers on both Chi cago and Washington avenues were .'flowing and the wave of water six feet in depth was sweeping on toward the main section of the city and on I he crest of the floods were borne bcxes, timbers, limbs of trees and wagon loads of grass and other debris that effectively plugged the E : iLiiets in the tj.ew acwft- dis trict and with each" passfnr -minute the water tearing through Main street threatened to ?weep into all of the business houses along the street. As the flood waters from the south side came down Chicago ave nue, they swept into the garage of the Plattsmouib Motor company, af ter Having tore out a large section of the retaining wall to the west of the garage, and filled the cellar and work rooms to the level of the first floor, catching a large number of cars that were stored there and be Ing repaired, and will inflict a heavy I - on George K. Petricg. the own er, as the result. The water then struck toward Sixth street and with lull force the water and its debris drove in the en'.ire front of the one story brick building occupied by C. C. Ts.hkert with his auto repair .-hop and rushed through the build ing, also tearing out the entire rear .veil and causing the back half of the roof to fall in. The water was then rushing with great force and to the depth eif several feet through Sixth street and as the flood reach ed its neight the rear of the build ing of D. B. Ebersole of South Sixtn Lreel i is undermined and caved in. and with the water menacing the buile :::g from the front threatened the safety Of Mr. Ebersole and his two sons, David and George, who ; at the store of the H. M. Soennich nrere living in the wrecked building. 1 8t.n company in the Dovev building. The water coming from the south ' were filled early in the flood, as the was m. t at trie intersection 01 axin and Main street by the great volume that poured down from uie north avenue and the back water covered! the sidewalks on Sixth street to a! e :h of . everal feet, filling the eel- I iars along the west side of the street i and at the F. G. Fricke & Company rug siur- the water completely I tilled the cellar as it did under the I t re i If. D. Brown. In the Fricke cellar there was a great deal of stock and window glass carried that will make Lheir loss one of the- aeaviest in the city. i The flood along Washington avenue- v."us especially severe to the resi dents along that thoroughfare, the' flood waters leaving the creek at the mouth of the sewer on Tenth street and sweeping on down the avenue, j At th residence of G. G. Meisinger j and EL L. Kruger, the cellars were filled and the water had commenced to leak into the doors of the first floor when the waters commenced to subside. The residence oi Fred Kunsman had water to the top of the baseboards on the first floor of the house and at the R. W. Cavender home iht water completely filled the cellar and threatened to reach into the first floor. The flood swept on and ra-d over the sidewalks into the reside-nce of Peter Claus and al- bq around the entrance to the home of Perry Coffman. The raising waters surrounded the homr of Herman Keithstadt and two inches of water covered the first floor of the home. Mr. Keichstadt had gone into the cel to carry out some fruit when the water first came into the yard, and was caught as the flood swept into the house and only with diffi culty was he able to make his wav out or the cellar. The water from Washington ave nue covered the floor of the Fradv ge with a coating of mud to a River at 4 OXlock depth of Beyer inches and also I .r. I. A ,1 mt ( . . r l .... V. t . 11 L- 1 jt i. .1 J 1 . of Mrs. G. G. MeL-dnger and threat ened for several moments to inun date the homes in that locality. As the flood swept on toward the main parr of the city it tore off the front steps at the home of Mrs. John Bauer. Sr.. and also flooded the cel lar of the Bauer garage and left a oatir.g of mud over the floor of the building. At the corner of Sixth and Vine, the force of the water tore away the rear doors of the Streight furniture store and played havoc with the stock of goods, tas water raising to the depth of almost two feet in the ::.a:n portion of the building and causing the collapse of the floor of the workroom ;n the rear of the building. This will be one of the heavy losses as the furniture and undertaking materials that were watersoaked cannot be cleaned up very satisfactorily. The waters also swept into the cellar across the street at the home of E. A. Wurl. and In North Sixth street the wat ers reached almost to the tops of cars that were parked there and car ried them out into the flood waters. vt ral being carried to the lower part of Main street bwfore they be came stranded and one went aground at the entrance to the Burlington subway, remaining there while the wa i er dashed completely over its top throughout the course of the flood. For the first time in years water poured into the basement of the Main hotel and on the west side of the Coates block reached almost to the windows on the first floor of the building and was forced into the plumbing department of the Kroeh ler Brothers store, while the cellar of the building was practically filled with the flood water. When the chief force of the water had swept into Main street it soon reached onto the sidewalks and in many places where there were open gratings in front of the stores, the cellars rapidly filled and much water seepi d through the walls into the ad joining cellars that were protected from the flood itself. The store of E. A. Wurl at the corner of F''xth and Main streets had on- of the heavy losses of the flood, as the water filled the cellar to a depth of several feet, part of this however breaking through from the flooded cellars to the south of the Store alonir Sixth street. The cellars Water poured in through the op- n gratings. The ware house at the rear of this building and across the alley was filled to a depth of several feet, causing the heaviest loss to the firm as there was a carload of salt and a large number of blankets stor- , od there. Another large building '. used to shelter the delivery teams during the winter, was wrecked as the rushing waters caught it broad sides. At the Airdome the water I was several feet deep and the large sections of seats floated areund in 1 the current, settling down as the water receded in any but the right places. The Soennie hsen company building is being remodeled and for tunately the cellars did not contain any merchandise. The cellars at the Chase meat market and the drug store of Weyrich & Hadraba were partially filled with water coming from the adjoining buildings. The firm of C. E. Wescott s Sons, which suffered so heavily in the flood of 1907, was more fortunate this time1, as the water passed them by and ail that they had was a .-mall amount that seeped in later from the nearby cellars. East of Fifth street on the south side there was not much damage to speak of. as the cellars that had any water was largely from seepage and i will not cause any severe loss, i On the north side of Main Btreet j the cellars near the Coates block I were filled with water and the rear wall of the kitchen of the Wagner ' cafe had a small hole torn in the bricks that caused some mud and water to wash in on the floor of the kitchen but this was soon cleaned I up. Water also made its way into i the cellars of the Mauzy Drug Co., and the Nebraska Gas and Electric j Co. office, but without heavy loss. j The floor at Mauzy's was covered with three inches of mud and water that swept in through the back door entrance and took a lot of scrub bing to clean up. but none ef the stock was damaged. The other build ings in the block did not receive any water to speak of. although the de bris washed clear to the front doors of the various stores and indicated the danger point that they had reached. Several automobiles which were parked along Sixth street were wash ed from their parking spaces ami swept into the young river that was rushing along the street. The sweep of the storm covered all directions near this city and the vicinity of Lincoln avenue also was flooded to some extent, although the storm there did not do the amount of damage it did in other sections of the city and which is most for tunate as the Burlington shops lo cated in that part of the city fared very well in the general conelitions and with the day s work the damage that has been done in the shops will practically be cared for. The great er part of this damage was from a coating ot mud that followed the overflowing of the waters and made some disagreeable features in a few of the buildings and loose scrap lum ber in the yards was washed around to some extent and the turntables received a dose of mud and water that required some work to clean up. The lumber department of the shops experienced the most severe force of the flood and which will require the straightening up of the piles of dif ferent kinds of lumber that were scattered during the storm, and will provide a real task for the Fourth ward councilman who presides over this department of the shops. With the general severity of the j storm, it is very fortunate tnat the I Burlington escaped so lightly. J The sidewalk leading to Winter j steen hill near the lower entrance to the Burlington shop yards was wash ed out for a distance of several feet and the bank there caved in also, and which will make it necessary to 1 lay a new walk there for the use of I the residents of Wintersteen hill. HAS A NARROW ESCAPE FROM LOSING LIFE Lee Cotner. Night Man at Petring Garage. Caught in Basement when Flood Strikes. From Thursday'n rs41y Lee Cotner, the night man at the Petring garage at Sixth and Pearl streets, had a very narrow escap from death this morning that he will long remember as being the closest call that he has experienced. Mr. Cotner. at the time the heavy rain was falling, had gone to the basement to clean the sewer inlets in case any water should get into the workroom of the garage and was also fastening the doors on the west side of the basement when the re taining wall at the west side of the auto store yard gave way and an eight foot wall of water struck the doors and splintered them like kind ling and hurled Lee into the midst of the swirling waters and to add to his peril the entire place was in darkness. As the first force of the water came Mr. Cotner started to swim to where he thought the stairs were located and very fortunately was able to find them at once and as he made his escape, the celler filled up rapidly with mud and water, mak ing the experience a real thrilling one for Mr. Cotner. A chance blow on the head as the doors caved in would have resulted in Lee being drowned as the water filled the base ment of the garage to a level with the main floor. DETORDING M. P. TRAINS From Friday's Iaily Owing to the difficulties experi enced with the high water at the Pappio which has made the Missouri Pacific more or less trouble through the overflowing of the water near their bridge, the trains on that road were detoured yesterady afternoon and last night over the Burlington from LaPlatte to Gilmour Junction. The detouring of the trains made necessary the use of a number of the local Burlington yard men as pilots for the M. P. trains and Ever j ett Gooding. Everett Noble and F. J A. Thackery spent the time in guid ing the trains over the South Oma j ha line of the Burlington to the Junction point. "Beck" and Thack ! ery drew the honor of conducting ; the passenger trains through while j "Woozy" was the guiding star of . one of the freight haulers of the rival railroad. TAKE MOTOR TRIP Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Eads will leave today on a motor trip to the former's old home at Burlington, la. Their daughter. Miss Fern Eads. who is a teacher in the Gallatin County High School at Bozeman. Mont., will spend the summer at Yellowstone National Park. She will come to Omaha for a visit with her parents about Sep tember 15. World-Herald. Business forms of an Yanfls print id at the Journal office. LOUISVILLE HAS ANOTHER HEAVY RAIN LAST NiOHT Mill Creek. Running Through the Tov.n. Overflows and Causes Damage to Lowlands. From Thursday's Patty The terrific electrical and rain storm that swept over this part of the state eariy ihis morning, gave the town of Louisville a very near repetition of the flood of September 2Sth last that wrought such damage to the nronertv and resulted in the loss of twelve lives. The terrific rains in that vicinity formed a dense body of water that soon transformed Mill creek into a raging river and the stream bank full was halted in its journey to the nearby Piatte as it struck the Mis souri Pacific bridge which deflected the water into the nearby lowlands and caused it to spread out over a considerable area. The residences in that part of town were soon sur rounded by a sea of water, but the people living there succeeded in milk ing their getaway in safety to high er lend and no loss of life was re ported. The water backed up as high as the foot of Main street, but there was no damage to speak of caused in th business section of the town by the Mill creek flood waters. How ever, the heavy rain brought a large volume of water from the hills into main part of town and filled the cel lars along the street to a consider able depth and caused damages to stocks of goods that were in the cellars. East of Louisville the storm was exceptionally severe and the loss to farm crops is beyond estimate, as practically every farmer had their crops washed out and in many c ases l::rge numbers of chickens were drowned and stock suffered injury from the onrush. ng waters. At the home of W. F. Diers in Eonisville, a iarge stone wall was caved in and will cst quite a sum to replace. At the farm of William Lohues. two and a half miies southeast of Cedar Creek there were several mules and horses drowne during the storm and a great many chickens were also drowned in the vast sea of water that swept over that locality. The Burlington suffered some loss at Cedar Creek. where the tracks were washed out and tied up traffic along that line. Storm Does Damage in the Four Mile Creek Neighborhood Thomas Wiles, who owns the farm that is bc:ng farmed by George Sian der, northwest of this city on the Four Mile creek, was informed last night by Mr. Stander that the storm early Thursday morning had done a great deal of damage in that locality and especially to the farm land and crops. Two foot bridges over the creek were washed completely away and 160 rod of wire fencing on the farm washed out by the force of the flood waters from the creek and the well used for watering stock completely ruined by the overflow:.:!! water from the creek. In addition Mr. Stander had forty acres of corn washed out which will be a complete loss. Mr. Stander. w ho has lived there for twenty-seven years, states that i: was the worst storm in his experience and did the most damage that he has been thru in all of these years. Storm at Weeping Water Alsc Does Much Damage The worst storm of the season broke in fury Thursday morning at 3 o'clock and continued for three quarters of an hour. A high wind prevailed and the rain fell in s! eels. Branches of trees were blown down all over town and everything loose was blown away. Telephone lines were down, so that reports from outside did not come in very fast Thursday morn ing. The Omaha train was sent back to Union to see if they could reach their destination over the main line. The track at Meadow was washed out on this line. Elmwood was reported under wat er in the low section. The Weeping Water here was al most bank full at i o'clock, and was rapidly rising. The roads will not be bad, except in the low places, for they will be beaten smooth. Anton Jorgensen says there were two big trees torn out by the roots at his farm west of town Thursday morning. Ole Olson had a load of hay over turned on Gospel Hill by the storm. Weeping Water Republican. SMALL RUNAWAY OCCURS From Friday's Daily Last evening while Claus Boetel Sr.. the dravman. was engaged in loading some lumber and cement in to his wagon on Third street, the steed which does the heavy work of hauling the wagon, concluded to take a spin on his own hook and for a few moments he made the rcord of Man-'O-War look like a starter. The horse was standing near the edge of the sidewalk while the ma- l terial was being loaded into the wagon and presently a truck came along at the same time as a car approached from the south and both attempted to pass and the two with the wagon made the road rather nai row and the result was that the auto grazed the hfrse and caused him to sunt out running and it was several minute later oforo he ani mal was stopped on eParl street by several passers by and held until Mr. Boete-1 could reach the scene and tame down the horse which war. badiy frightened. Purchases Thoroughbred Bull to Head His Herd From Thursday's Daily: Luke L. Wiles, one of the best known Red Poll cattle breeders in the state, has a very fine herd at his home just at the outskirts of the city and yeierday he disposed of one of the fine thoroughbred bulls of his herd to L. N. Jirousek, of Nia brara. Nebraska, and who will add the animal to his large herd of thoroughbreds. Mr. Jirousek feels very fortunate in getting the new addition to his herd which will give him one of the best herds in the northern part of the state. The animal will be shipped at once to the Jirousek farm. UNLUCKY THIRTEENTH From Friday's Iaiiy Today is classed as one of the real unlucky days of the year as it has the combination of both Fri day and the 13th of the month, either one being enough tn make a crap shooter lay down the bones for the day. but coming on the same date they make even a Mah Jong player carry a rabbit's foot to keep off bad luck. However, as one of our friends said the day is not so unlucky as the republican conven tion has adjourned and wished all the bad luck in the country that they possibly could. STORM ODES DAMAGES TO GQGD MAN If BRIDGES Conuty Commissioners Receiving Re ports from Ail Over County As to the Damage of Storm. Fr"m Fridays laHj The extremely wet season that has visited this part of the fair state of Nebraska and with the storms of the most unusual severity raging over Cass county the toll in the way of damage is beginning to come into the board of county commissioners who have jurisdiction over the bridge work over the county. Commissioner Farley has the re ports of two bridges along the us ually peace Four Mile creek being in bad shape, one em the Louisville road near the C. F. Vallery farm and one on the Cedar Creek road and which I soon as the weather will permit will be looked after. One bridge a mile east and a mile north of the town of Elmwood is also reported as being in bad shape and one also near Wabash. In Elmwood precinct another bridge has been out of commission and also one in the vicinty of Greenwood. These may be small jobs, how ever, as they are generally occassion ed by the washing out of approaches to the bridges rather than the bridges themselves and can be fixed up as soon as possible. In other cases the bridges have been weak ened by the fact that the high waters have undermined them and these will take more work to get into shape. The storms will provide a great deal of extra work for the road over seers and in addition to their regu lar maintaining work will keep them rushed with work for several weeks at least. Mother Gives Birthday Party for Young Son Mrs. Ralph Larson entertained her three little nephews. Clemens, Herbert and Vincent Sundstrom, at a birthday party in honor of the first anniversary or her little son. Ralph Edward Larson, junior, last Monday afternoon. The little host is a fine boy and is showing strong indications of being capable of great administrative ability and he han dles the reins of government very admirably and the Courier joins with the host of friends of his parents in congratulating them as well as the little junior and wishing him many happy and prosperous birthday an niversaries. Louisville Courier. The young man is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. L. G. Larson of this city and the many friends of the family here will be pleased to note that the little man is showing such progress along the highway of life. Miss Marie Sperry departed this morning for Omaha where she will spend the day with her mother. Mrs. Grace Sperry at the Immanuel hos- ! pital where she is recovering from a recent operation. Mrs. Sperry is now doing very nicely. HEARING ON IN JUNCTION AGAINST QIJINTQN BEGUN Judge C. A. Stueffer, of Omaha, Here Today to Hear the Matter of Restraining Application From Friday's Dally A large and distinguished portion of the bar o the state of Nebraska was present this morning in the dis trict court to try before Judge C. A. Stuefier of Omaha, the matter for the application for a restraining order against C. D. Quinton. Abra ham Lincoln Tidd, Ralph J. Haynie, and Andrew F. Sturm. The restraining order was issued by Judge Stueffer on June 1st and covered the matter of the surrender of the possession of the county jail by the defendant Quinton to E. P. Stewart, the present sheriff, the for bidding of the defendants to publish notices purporting that C. D. Quin ton was the sheriff of Cass County and also from stating to other parties that the plaintiff, E. P. Stewart was not sheriff of Cass county and that the defendant Quinton was the sheriff. This morning when the case came up for hearing. Judge Ben S. Baker of Omaha, A. S. Lewis, Jr., of Omaha and W. A. Robertson of this city ap peared for Mr. Stewart, Judge Paul Jessen and D. W. Livingston of Nebraska City and A. L. Tidd of this city for the various defendants. The plaintiff in the action pre sented several stipulations as to the facts in the case, that the defendant Quinton had refused the possession of the jail to the plaintiff and as to statements made to other parties that Quinton and not Stewart was the legal county sheriff. For the defense Mr. Livingston made the statement of the case to the court in which he presented his side ( f the case, contending that the application of Mr. Quinton to Gov. Bryan to be relieved of the office applied to only the serving of papers in the case in which he was a de fendant, that the appointment by Governor Bryan of Mr. Stewart was ilUgal and that further on the ap pealing of the" case in which Quin ton had been convicted of znaife asence in office, to the supreme court, the sentence and the remov al of office made by Judge Alexan der C. Troup of Omaha, was su spended. The defense also present ed a number of affidavits from the defendants in support of their con tents ns. As the case was only about half completed at the noon hour the court took a recess until 1 o'clock. After the offering of evidence the matter was hurriedly argued to the court this afternoon and taken un der advisement by the court and de cisions will be announced later. Train Service Demoralized as a Result of the Rain From Thursday's iJally The railroad traffic into this city was very much shot as the result of the storm of last night and this morning and both the Burlington and Missouri Pacific suffered from the effects of the storm very much. The Burlington nad a washout at Chabo and on the Louisville line near Cedar Creek tnat delaved No. 6 from the west for several hours and FOG! Some folks move about in a contin ual fog as far as their financial affairs are concerned. They never know where their money has gone, what bills have been paid and when, or hew much money they have on hand. Clear up the fog by carrying a Check ing account at the First National Bank. Your check stubs and canceled checks will show clearly where ycu 'and at any moment. The First NiqnalBank TME BANK WHERE 7pU EEL AT HOgj WJUTSHOUTH "NEBRASKA "The Bank Where Yon Feel at Home!" it was not until 11 o'clock that the connection with the west was made bv a stub train to Pacific Junction The Missouri Pacific was suffering from a washout between Nebraska I City and Auburn that closed their Omaha line for several hours. This afternoon the Pappio creek is over flowing and threatening the Bur jlington line near Bellevue, where so j much trouble was experienced last i fall. BOTTOM UNDER WATER The bottom lands east of the Bur lington station has a fine accumula tion of articles today as the re sult of the flood of the early morn ing hours and everything from the heavy concrete intersection mark ers that formerly graced Main street, to lumber by the wagon load is to be found scattered over the bottom. The area there was a sea of water during the storm and the swift stream pouring down from the hills took everything loose with it and left it lying along the bottom. The enormous force of the water broke down the entire west side of the fence at the baseball park. From somewhere the flood waters picked up a fine assortment of brick that had been deposited along the road way east of the station. The; farm of August Bach on the north side of the road has receved a large dose of water and which has spread over the newly plowed ground that was just bt mi planted. SOME FINE STRAWBERRIES The publisher of the Journal is indebted to Julius A. Pitz for one of the finest boxes of strawberries that has been his good fortune to see the present season and which was grown at the home of Mr. I'itz in tht south portion of the city. The strawberries ore of large size and the most de licious flavor and as a whole are as nice as could possibly be found any where. RETURNS FROM A PLEASANT TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND Father Ferdinand Suesser, Who Has Been Journeying Through Scenes of Bible Returns Yesterday afternoon Father Fer dinand Suesser, the rector of the Holy Rosary Catholic church return ed home from a three month's visit abroad and which included a jour ney through the holy land and ths pilgrimage over the scenes of the life of Christ and which gave the genial rector the opportunity of personal observance of the Bcenes and the land which has occupied the? great part in the world's sacred history. Father Suesser was one of a large party of tourists that made the trip and which also enjoyed brief visits at the seaports of Naples and Egypt and also a call at Rome, the seat of the Catholic church. The members of the parish and the many irfends outside of the church are pleased to have him re turn safely and enjoying a tine trip and will await with interest the account of the trip when the priest will have recovered from the fatigue of the trip and give an account of his experiences.