On February 22, 1851, the Columbus Democrat reported, “Our river has again overflowed its banks, and reached within a few inches of the great freshet of 1847.”
The New Orleans Times Picayune carried an account from Aberdeen of the 3-story brick store building of Cozart & Clark collapsing onto the next-door wooden drugstore building of Dr J Street. The paper attributed the collapse “to the effects of the recent overflow of the Tombigbee River…”
According to the Columbus Democrat article, “On Friday night when the water was just spreading itself over the banks. The Jenny Lind passed under the bridge, and relieved the extensive warehouses of Mesers Hale and Murdock of West Port (a shipping community across from Columbus where the Tenn-Tom channel cut old Highway 82), of all the cotton which was in danger. We learn that 1,100 bales were shipped, which is the largest shipment ever made by any house, at one time from the river.”
The paper added that the damage around Columbus was not as great as it might have been as many warehouses and building had been elevated following the flood of 1847.
The article went onto praise the Jenny Lind for refusing to accept cotton from warehouses down river, though they offered to pay much more than regular shipping charges to save their cotton. The Jenny Lind, however, took care of “her friends” at her regular landings without raising the price of shipping. She did that even at the risk of being caught above the bridge in rising flood waters.
The Jenny Lind was a regular Columbus/Mobile packet boat. She was called a “first class fast running steamer.” She would leave Mobile every Wednesday at 5 o’clock PM for Columbus and leave Columbus every Sunday at 8 o’clock AM returning to Mobile.
Her passenger accommodations and speed were advertised as being equal to any steamer on the Tombigbee River. From December 1850 to May1851 she made 19 trips to Columbus.
The farm journal of the John M. Billups plantation has survived from 1851 and is in the Billups Garth Archives of the Columbus Lowndes Public Library. I wondered if those records mentioned that Tombigbee flood of 1851. They didn’t mention the flood, but gave a good description of the weather that caused it. Here is a transcription of those journal entries prepared for the Billups Garth Archives by Carolyn Kaye.
Journal for the year 1851
January — The 1st day of this month clear & quite cool, night of the 1st become cloudy, and morning of the 2nd commenced snowing & continued until after the middle of the day- The heaviest snow that we have had since March 1843… — On the 22nd commenced raining in the morning & continued pretty much through the day, making land altogether too wet for ploughing — Commenced bedding again morning of 25th and ploughed three days when stopped again by rain. — Morning of 28th rain again, making the ground too wet for ploughing — morning of the 29th cleared off very cold with high north wind almost too cold for any kind of work — 30th & 31st still excessively cold ground sufficiently dry for ploughing, but so hard frozed that no ploughing could be done until the afternoon of each day. This month has been remarkably dry, no rain at all, until within the last ten days of the month & then not a great deal…
Feb — The first day of this month is still quite cold, with a strong south wind, very damp & unpleasant. Commenced raining early on the morning of the 2nd and continued until about midnight on the night of the 3rd—The rain was very moderate, but almost incessant, making the ground excessively wet.
Commenced ploughing again on the morning of the 6th being the first since the 1st, having lost four days On the morning of 9th commenced raining & continued until 9 o’clock at night. During the day, did not rain very hard. Showery through the day; About 4 o’clock in afternoon commenced raining as hard as I ever saw & continued until 9 at night — washing land dreadfully taking up bridges & crossways & doing much destruction. Lost two days ploughing. Commenced again morning of 12th & was stopped again 13th middle of day by rain. Rain now continued for a day and a half & portion of the time very hard. — 15th cleared off cold & windy fair weather now for several days. — On 19th rain again in the afternoon & part of the night; 21st cleared off & good weather for two or three days – then rain again. This month has been remarkably wet, never a time more unfavorable for the planter, scarcely any work done through the month.
March — The first day of this month was cool & windy, followed by 5 days of pleasant weather — On the night of 6th heavy rain & continued all night, & until about 12 o’clock next day. This was the last heavy rain for a while and ended the wet flooding conditions. How bad was the flood of 1851? It was within inches of the flood of 1847 which has been Compared to the flood of 1892. The flood of 1892 reached to what would now be the edge of the lower parking lot at Harvey’s on Main Street.
Rufus Ward is a local historian.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.