The Matagorda County Tribune. (Bay City, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, June 12, 1914 Page: 9 of 16
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Matagorda County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Matagorda County Museum & Bay City Public Library.
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ROYAL
8
Will
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COLLEGEPORT CONDITIONS.
CAPT. J. W. WHITE MASES IM-
PORTANT HOUSE AND LOT DEAL
*4
WADSWORTH
HOTEL
J. H. EHerkamp, Prop.
jo 7 ,*;
No. 12 Cotton Planter
The fine
and
T)1
season
good condition of the
lor
lands augurs well, but
above all, the
of
use
good and dependable
s
implements is the most
RMIMMMM
important.
Full
«s
& 0.” GOODS
CANTON PLOWS CANTON PLOWS CANTON PLOWS CANTON PLOWS
Man Who Knows.
MERCANTILE COMPANY
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UP TO LAST DECxar---—
TECTION LEVEE HaL ~~
BACK THE WATER FOR’
TWELVE TEARS.
AN EVENING PARTY
AT TAGLEWYLD.
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Popular Prices by Day
FIRST CLASS ACCOMIDATIONS
“\ER, OUR PRO-
L’eld
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77 v
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ft
ft
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The most successful Com-
bined Cotton Planter and Mid-
dle Breaker ever made.
It has ample strength
four horses, and it is
From Saturday’s Daily.
No adage could more thoroughly
verify itself than did that of “Every-
thing comes to him who waits” in the
evening party given by Mrs. James
S. Mayfield for her second daughter,
Nellie, just before the water incapaci-
tated the roads. The floods descend-
ing upon us had twice postponed the
beautifully planned affair, but noth-
ing daunted, the hopeful young pen
Backed by an
Unqualified
Guarantee
Le Tulle Mercantile Company
Headquai .rs for
All Kinds of Up-to-Date Fann Machinery
i
"ir
or Week
7
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------0—o------
“When the whole world seems gone to
pot,
And business is on the bum,
A 2-cent grin and a lifted chin
Helps some, my boy, helps some.”
—Austin Statesman.
Although Collegeport knows noth-
ing about “high water” the entire dis-
trict has suffered more or less from
excessive rainfall. This has caused
much of the crop to be replanted and
a general backward condition. Tt is
estimated that over the entire College-
port distniot cue crop today is about
co per cent normal. Cotton espec-
We Carry a
Stock of
Those who are in a position to do
so can do a wonderful work for the
city in encouraging every possible
improvement in the way of buildings
especially, where securities are
ample. Nothing could possibly do
more for the city than this one thing.
When we can show to the world that
building activity is great and that the
improvements are of a substantial
character it will show to the public
our determination to mflke a city and
our faith in the future of the town.
Get Ready for Planting Time
ctibsolute# BAKING |
Pizre POWDEM
Makes Home-Baking Successful and Easy B
OVERFLOW FACTS I
.si PAST AND FUTURE !
I
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■ ?■/
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■ M: ■
E TULLE
■
, The only Cotton Planter made where the hitch retains the same relative position
whether plowing deep or shallow, avoiding all neck weight, which is accomplished
by the small lever on the end of the tongue. The only planter made which throws-
the feed mechanism automatically out of gear without separating the gear wheels, avoid-
ing all liability of breaking the teeth in the gears. These and other excellent features,
protected by patents, can be found only on the P. & O. Canton Planter.
The bottom always remains at the same angle whether set deep or shallow.
This angle can be instantly changed by the lever on the tongue. Has detachable hop-
per with the plates and agitator moving in opposite directions, preventing the seed
from bunching. The finest Cotton and Corn Planter made.
fc..,,.....
another great flood would come, and
in the meantime an attempt was made
to keep out small freshets by stopping
up the gaps in the old levee, tempor-
arily; but successive rains have pre-
vented the use of teams and scrapes,
From Saturday’s Daily.
Bay City has had two7 floods:
fast December r~ ’
In neither was there an?/
or destruction of propel
in town varying in depth
From Monday’s Daily.
Magill Bros, report the closing of
deal with Capt. J. W. White this
morning in which Capt. White pur-
chases two lots from the Townsite Co.,,
just southeast of the school house,
in front of the Bob Sisk lots.
To these lots he-will remove the
Presbyterian manse lately occupied
bj their pastor, Rev. Selfridge, the
manse having been purchased by
Capt. White for that purpose.
When removed and nicely fitted, the
new place will be occupied by Prof.
Scott and he will have a commodious
house most convenient to the temple
of learning.
On the present site of the manse
the Presbyterians will build a com-,
modious, modern, new two-story home
for Rev. Selfridge.
Just as soon as Capt.: White can get
his house-'moving outfit together anc%
get the old house off, construction on
the new home will begin and be push-,
ed to completion. .
Out of the deal will come right along
a new home for Prof. Scott and a
larger and more comfortable home for
Rev. Selfridge; and such transactions
but mark the beginning of the new
life, the new growth for a greater
Bay City. The short-sighted, weak-,
kneeed ones will sift out and the long-,
headed enterprising ones like Capt.,
White will go right ahead, for despite,
the difficulties, Bay City and Mata-,
gorda County have every asset today
that they have ever had and you ca&’t
stop their onward progress.
as DeMoss is generally a fair stand.
Some corn planted just before the
heavy rains of early March stands 8
feet high and with two and sometimes
three ears to the stalk. Prof. Per-
sons, who Visited Collegeport this
week, estimates that one lot of corn
will produce at the rate of 60 bushels
per acre. One farmer has twenty-
five Dasheen plants that seem to be
making a splendid growth. C. H.
Judin has Sudan grass four feet high
with good heads. The farmers who
have siloes are organizing an associa-
tion for purpose of buying and oper-
ating a silage cutter. This machine
will be available at low prices for
those who are not members of the or-
ganization. Last year it cost 60c
per ton to cut silage whereas in the
North it is done for less than half that
price. H. A. C.
occurr^ before within the memory of
~o.xi. The drainage basin of this
river, including- its several large trib-
utaries, such as three Conchos, the
Llano, the San Saba and many smaller
streams, covers a scope of country
nearly 700 miles long by an average | and the dirst dumped in by wheel-
width of 200 miles. Heavy rains
covering any considerable portion of
• ,JarSe basin produces the fresh
in the ix
eral daWer’ and a raiuy sPe11 of sev-
basitfi^8 f,verin§' a wide area of the
prodces a flood. The heavier
the rain ad the larger the area cov-
ered, the greater the flood. Last De-
cember ttere was a season of heavy
rainfall covering this entire basin, a
condition never known before; the
nearest tpproach to it having occur-
red in 1169.
That Hood broke over our protection
levee, despite the efforts to prevent
One it by several hundred men working
and one just now de- dw and night through several stren-
uous days. When that flood subsided,
it was found that it had made gaps
in the levee here and there throughout
several miles of its length, though the
widest and deepest was where the
levee crosses the swayle constituting
the beginning of Betts’s Creek.
During the intervening years since
the founding of the town, other things
have happened which materially af-
Lionel onn OtJVclidll ini-
gating canals and railroads have been
constructed, whose, huge levees and
dumps serve as barriers to flood wa-
ters; though the side ditches of these
structures, from which the dirt was
taken to make them, materiall assist
surface drainage of the rainfall.
Wherever these canals have built
flumes across Cottonwood Creek, and
wherever the railroads have built
bridges across the stream, they have
built high, solid dirt approaches to
the same. The result has been, that
when the creek overflowed its banks
and spread out over the low lands on
either side, these dirt approaches
dammed up this surplus water, caus-
ing it to overflow large, areas of the
city as well as a few thousand acres
of the very finest of farm lands above
the city. These conditions greatly
aggravated the December flood, pro-
longing its duration and augmenting
the damage thereof, and the same is
true of the flood just now ending.
Immediately following the Decem-
ber flood, this levee and drainage, dis-
trict took the necessary legal steps for
an election and by a majority of four
to one voted $100,000 of bonds to re-
construct the levee throughout its en-
tire length, and to widen and deepen
the drainage canals and ditches and
the channels of the creeks and sloughs
within the district, which extends
from the Colorado River on the west
to Caney Creek on the east, and from
the county line 15 miles north of town
to the Sexton Canal, some 6 miles
south of town.
Following the issuance of these
bonds, a contract was made with the
Arpin Dredge Company to do this
work. As originally constructed, this
levee was 30 feet thick at the base
and 8 feet on top. Prior to last De-
cember, no flood had ever run over
the levee. The contract calls for a
42 foot base and 8 foot crown in the
reconstructed levee, and for an addi-
tion of 4 feet to its height.
It was hoped that the contractors
would be able to do this work before
JOHN DEERE and “P
had the
railroad officials here showing them
how cheaply the crevasses in the, lev-
ee can be stopped, he also show/'-’
them the importance of the
solid di-<- v^proachee to their bridges
over Cottonwood Creek and of replac-
ing same with trestles, so that the
creek channel can have just as much
carrying capacity under these bridges
as elsewhere, and they agreed to do
this at once. Our genial and re-
sourceful mayor always gets what he
wants from the tailroad people, be-
cause he is always able to show them
that what he asks of them is as much
for their benefit as for that of the
city. This will enable all future
freshet water of the creek to pass
through town without ever overflow-
ing us again.
And we are still in much better con-
dition than hundreds of other towns
and sections of country. The farm-
ers above town have suffered serious
losses, and everything possible should
be done—and will be done, we have
no doubt—to tide them over. Many
people in the town have been serious-
ly inconvenienced, and the losses of
gardens and flowers are not relished.
More serious than this has been the
killing of fruit trees and shrubbery
in a few instances, and the temporary
interference with railroad traffic and
with business have been annoying.
But neither this flood nor that in
December, nor both together, has been
one-fourth so serious as the storm of
July 21, 1909, and we not only sur-
vived that affliction, but we quickly
repaired the $250,000 loss, making the
reconstruction twice as good as it was
before, just as our levee will be, and
we have, so nearly forgotten that
storm that you rarely hear it men-
tioned now. Bay City is twice as big
and more than twice as strong now
as it was then. And five years from
now both our town and our county
will be twice as populous and twice
as wealthy as they were before these,
floods struck us.
Let it be borne in mind that in all
of the foregoing, there is not a line
of hot air. It is a plain recital of in-
disputable facts and reasonable fu-
ture probabilities, as the heading of
this article promised. The Tribune
is a pretty loyal booster, all right;
| L '
■ UPG
than this, these
found their way into
Creek which has its source very near
thei river some three miles above town,
as the bird flies, and flows through a
rapidly enlarging channel that winds
through the center of the townsite.
, This caused frequent overflows of the
;reek, doing more or less damage to
he lumber yards, manufacturing
Hants and some residences and shops
iuilt* along the creek,, and interrupt-
ing intercourse between the eastern
aid western halves of the town.
These conditions caused the con-
struction of a protection levee along
the timber line, which was afterwards
, extended north to the county line and
then eastward along the county line
I till the highest land was reached.
For twelve years the water never
came oyer this levee; though the raft
has built up through the winding
channel of the river till the head of it
is now several miles above town.
But last December there was such
a flood in the Colorado as had never
parted,
loss of life
the water
from one inch to three feet except in
the low places along the creek bank.
There has been sc-aie damage to
property here and there.
The purpose jf this resume of the
past and forecast of the future is, pri-
marily, to give correct information to
those living away from Bay City, and
secondarily to strengthen tho faim and
courage of our own people.
But a brief statement of the condi-
tions producing and affecting over-
Bows in the Colorado River and Cot-
■onwood Creek is first in order.
F When Bay City was born in 1894 it
was located on the prairie, two miles
east of the Colorado River. The head
of the raft of drift wood choking up
several miles of the channel of the
river was then some seven miles be-
low town. This raft acts as a dam to
throw the flood waters out over the
adjacent prairies. Every overflow of
toms above here swept addi-
driftwood into the current,
was brought down and added
raft, causing it to progress up
jam at an average rate of half
ii year. For as this raft builds
he upper end it rots and goes
n the lower end. Some twelve
igo this raft had crept up to
he flood waters thrown out of
toms by it began to encroach
ay City to some extent. But
waters also
Cottonwood
tut in all of its boosting it endeavors
to keep on good solid boosting ground.
It never consciously indulges in mere
hot air. Only yesterday it was asked
to boost an interurban proposition,
just to hearten, our people'.”” " *
their slon™ —“*• we delcined to be
a party to such a deception. It is
much better to show them that there
is no substantial cause for gloom.
And we have shown them.
Now buck the line, and buck it
hard I
pie, under the chaperonage o<’airs- A- ’a^^ town in what is known
A. Moore, drove in the nign splr-
/ls justified by the event.
The group, already composing a
small house party or going out that
evening were, Jane Ninde Mabel
Sweeney, Thelma Moore, Ethel Miller,
May Perry, Mary Terese and Cather-
ine Moore, Nell and Louise Mayfield;
Percy Hamil, Clarancei Woolsey, Cot-
trell Brooks, Merlin Vogelsang, Rich-
ard Gaines, William Holland, Lane
Holman, James Preddy, T. C. Cash
and Austin Castleton, and the heart-
iest of greeting met them at Tangle-
wyld.
That they danced, in the joy of liv-
ing, goes without saying; and further
entertainment was furnished by the
game of bunco, or more correctly
speaking, two games, as there was an
individual table for the youngest
quartette, at which the prizes were
won by Catherine Moore and Richard
Gaines, the gifts revealing themselves
as a dainty wreath of roses and a-
stunning tie. In the larger circle the
high scores went to Mary Terese
Moore, who received a blue bird pin,
and Clarence Woolsey, who got his ill
luck with a lively perfume and Cot-
trell Brooks had an opportunity to
voice his woe with an eloquent horn.
The artistic skill of the hostess was
never more evident than in the de-
tail of the dining room decorations,
where two tables carried out the pink
and white coloring in flowers, souve-
nirs and the dessert course. The
large baskets, composing the center-
pieces were filled with pink roses,
and attached to them and running to
each guest place, were pink ribbons
at the end of which were baskets of
pink roses for the girls and small um-
brellas, that ever-useful Bay City ar-
ticle,—containing pencils for the
boys. The menu, in which Ann sur-
passed heTself, consisted of chicken
salad, Saratoga chips, olives, sand-
wiches, rolls, cold tea, ice cream and
cake.
Thus did full enjoyment indeed come
to those who had patiently waited, and
seldom has a happier lot of young peo-
nle gone forth and returned to town.
The time of arrival home need not be
stated, as several happenings occur-
red en route.—but that is the secret of
those who know.
WILL S. HOLMAN
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
Bay City, Texas. ,
43“ Will practice in Appellate, Supreme anc>
federal courts.
43“ Office in the court ouse.
--O—O-----
FOR SALE, a Brush runabout in
first-class condition. Evan Watkins,
Box 540, Bay City. w-14-tf
------o—o------
There’s no doubt but that both cot-
ton and rice will command good prices
this year and in view of this fact every
acre possible to plant should be put
in. Both cotton and rice planted
now will do well and even though a
small yield is made the price will
make up much of the difference. Re-
member we yet have plenty of time
to make good on our crops.
As Reconstructed, This Levee
Surely Hold Back the River for
All Time, and the Railroa^j^
Will Replace DumpsA^j ’
ii^Oflreson Cottonwood
Creek Ranks.
barrows dissolved as fast as it —-
dumped ir>+'' Hence, when
another big flood came down the river
two weeks ago, it had unobstructed
passways through the crevasses made
in the levee in December, and because
of successive rises above, the water
has remained with us twice as long
this time as it did then, though it did
not get quite so deep.
But the water is gone now from
most of the town, and will be from
all of it by tomorrow, and in all hu-
man probability it is gone never to
return. For the dredge company has
made a special contract to fill up all
gaps in the old levee at once, before
commencing construction of the: new
one on the old foundation. That will
keep the river out of the town and
out of Cottonwood Creek.
When Mayor Sutherland
’ i i
Which Need no Introduction to the
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Smith, Carey. The Matagorda County Tribune. (Bay City, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, June 12, 1914, newspaper, June 12, 1914; Bay City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1299678/m1/9/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Matagorda County Museum & Bay City Public Library.