Bonne Terre on last Friday night had the record rainfall within the memory of anyone.
Four inches of rain fell in a few hours and when morning broke Big River was on a tear and before noon it was evident that Big River would establish a record high water mark.
The Leadwood morning train could not get in on account of a washout on the branch and only reached here late in the afternoon.
At an early hour in the morning teams and autos carried curious people out to the George Ford bridge between Bonne Terre and Desloge and there were many present when the bridge left the piers and was washed down stream. East of town the bridge over the river was reported in danger and was twisted about some, and a part of the east approach was damaged, but it remained passable.
The railroad bridge north of town which eight years ago was raised six feet remained in good shape the water came up over the cap rock on the piers.
This is the second time the George Ford bridge has washed away, the other time being about six years ago, at which time the bridge level was raised several feet. Presiding Judge Marshall of the County Court informs us that present plans are to put in a new bridge, raising it about seven feet, and using the material from the old bridge to construct an approach which will give an additional opening of 60 feet through which water may sweep in time of flood. It will take about six weeks to put in a new bridge.
The information on this site is provided free for the purpose of researching your genealogy. This material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, for your own research. The information contained in this site may not be copied to any other site without written "snail-mail" permission. If you wish to have a copy of a donor's material, you must have their permission. All information found on these pages is under copyright of Oklahoma Cemeteries. This is to protect any and all information donated. The original submitter or source of the information will retain their copyright. Unless otherwise stated, any donated material is given to MOGenWeb to make it available online.