Fairbury's biggest floods

About 10,000 years ago, the glaciers covering Illinois melted and disappeared.

The good news is that the glaciers left behind some of the flattest and most productive farmland on the planet. The bad news is that this flat prairie had very poor natural drainage. Before extensive drainage tile was installed in the late 1800s, much of the land around Fairbury was wet and swampy.

The clay tile installed beneath the farmland drained water into ditches that eventually emptied into Indian Creek or the Vermilion River. This system made the rich prairie farmland much more productive, but it could not eliminate flooding. When too much rain fell too quickly, the creeks and drainage ditches overflowed, and huge temporary lakes appeared across the countryside.

The two biggest floods in Fairbury’s recorded history occurred in 1869 and 1951. In both cases, many inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. The waterways could not carry away the enormous volume of water, resulting in widespread flooding throughout Fairbury and the surrounding countryside.

When the Flood of 1951 occurred, everyone compared it to the Flood of 1869. On June 30, 1869, the Pantagraph published a story about the Flood of 1869, originally published in the Pontiac Sentinel. This article reported that heavy rains began on Friday afternoon and continued into Saturday. Ten to 15 inches of rain fell in the area, and by Sunday, the Vermilion River had risen, flooding half of Pontiac.

The flooding washed away anything not fastened down, including wood fences, outhouses, and sheds. So much rain fell that it washed the soot down the chimneys until it ran onto the floors and carpets in the houses.

In Pontiac, John Geiger sent his young son into his house to get a chain so he could keep his wooden fence from floating away. His wife told the son to tell his father to go back inside, but when the son went back outside, he saw his father sink into the river. Unfortunately, John Geiger drowned, and his body was found an hour later near where he disappeared below the water.

Albert G. Phelps (1852-1944) lived south of Fairbury and witnessed the 1869 Flood when he was 17 years of age. He told his children the story of this great flood, and in 1951 they reported it to the Blade. Mr. Phelps recounted that 1869 was a rainy year, with watercourses already swollen, and on June 9 a nine-inch rain fell for hours in cloudburst volume, raising the creek, which borders the farm on the north, six feet, filling lowlands for miles, with fearful damage to crops, livestock and property. "Everything that would float from the head of the creek was lodged in Spence's timber," said Mr. Phelps; and the boys of that period had a great time the following few days climbing around the debris of wagons, buggies, and farm property of all kinds caught in the timber.

Years later, when Mr. Phelps took his children out to the farm in the buggy, he sometimes stopped at the entrance, pointed to a notch cut in the gate post, and said, "Boys, there is the high water mark of 1869."

The Flood of 1869 was characterized by 10 to 15 inches of rain falling within about two days. In July 1951, Fairbury experienced 8.1 inches of rain in just four hours, as measured by Myron Womack's rain gauge on the north side of town. The government rain gauge at the Fairbury waterworks on the south side of town recorded 7.3 inches of rain within just four hours.

According to the Blade, federal conservationists said that, according to government records for this area, 4 inches of rain in 4 hours is the maximum rainfall expected here in a 50-year period, and that once in 100 years, 4½ inches would be the maximum rainfall to fall in 4 hours. It appears nature has no respect for estimates, since the rainfall exceeded anything government conservationists expected in any 100-year period.

The Blade published extensive coverage of the Flood of 1951 in its July 12, 1951 issue. This coverage included 12 photographs of flood damage in the Fairbury area. The Blade published some follow-up stories and photographs the next week in the July 19, 1951 issue.

The Blade reported that Fairbury experienced high winds during this storm, driving the rain at about a 10-degree angle to the ground. Trees and large branches were blown down throughout the city in great numbers, and the town's walks and streets resembled a jungle to residents as they awoke Monday morning. No street in the entire city escaped the falling branches. Many of the streets were blocked. Driving through the streets felt like following a path through a forest.

The gale-force winds set two empty freight cars in motion on a siding at the Honegger mill, blowing them about 400 feet and with such force that when the first car struck other cars on a joining track, it derailed. The worst damage was in the northeast section of town, where larger trees were uprooted in several cases.

Northeast of the city, water was reported to be level with the floorboards at the Fugate Bridge. Jim Mowery, who has lived near the bridge for over 60 years, said the water was six inches higher than he had ever seen it before. At this point, the river was a mile and a quarter wide.

The water in that section also reached to within four inches of the floor in the new farm home of the Roy Goolds. Pigs were chased into the front yard to save them from drowning. At dawn Monday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dart were rescued from their farm home, which had become completely surrounded by water. Royce, Harry Carter, and Kenny Brandt drove a motorboat through a cornfield to carry out the rescue. They crossed fences without lifting the motor.

In 1951, the clubhouse at the golf course was just southeast of the intersection of Fifth Street and Munz Alley. The golf course, long a gauge of water levels, was completely covered except for the clubhouse and Nos. one, two, and six greens. The water approached the clubhouse to within 20 or 30 feet.

West of Fairbury on Route 24, water covered the road in five places, all of which receded about daybreak Monday. Many Fairbury citizens were stranded in Chenoa and Pontiac, and the blacktop from Weston was also impassable. Route 66 was also closed between Pontiac and Chenoa until Monday afternoon. Traffic was re-routed down Route 47, causing a steady stream of traffic into Forrest from the north. Farther east, between Piper City and Chatsworth, floodwaters weakened a railroad bridge, causing seven freight cars of a T. P. & W. train to derail.

Fortunately, Fairbury experienced no fatalities from the Flood of 1951. Unfortunately, Robert A. Olmstead, 12 years old, drowned in a swollen creek near Cornell. Young Robert was playing near the creek with three other boys when he stepped off a ledge and sank from view. He was the grandson of Mrs. Elizabeth Olmstead, who lived in Fairbury.

In terms of severity, the Flood of 1869 was slightly worse than the Flood of 1951. In 1951, Pontiac reported that the Vermilion River had reached its highest crest since the memorable flood of 1869, with the Tuesday morning crest just two inches lower than the crest of 82 years ago.

The good news is that the Fairbury area has only experienced two catastrophic floods in the last 157 years. Although the probability of a major flood is low, new floods are possible if we receive a tremendous amount of rainfall in a relatively short time period.

Dale Maley's weekly history feature is sponsored by Dr. Charlene Aaron.