EAST ST. LOUIS • The Mississippi River was rising almost one foot per day. Mayor Silas Cook organized patrols along the city's flood defenses, such as they were.
In 1903, East St. Louis and other industrial cities on the American Bottom relied on a network of railroad embankments to hold back the river. An outlying levee in Madison County ran from the Merchants Bridge near Venice eastward to the village of Mitchell.
The news upriver was sobering. The Missouri River had swamped sections of Kansas City, rising 8 feet into its old Union Depot. On June 2, it swept across St. Charles County's lowland and joined the Mississippi. St. Charles lost its power plant. West Alton went under.
The Mississippi rose to 34 feet at St. Louis on June 5, four feet above flood stage. Back then, levees were smaller and fewer. Flood stage had serious meaning.
People are also reading…
The first city folk affected lived in houseboat colonies along the riverbanks. The largest, known as Little Oklahoma, was home to about 400 people two miles north of downtown St. Louis. They moved inland with the rising water and snagged driftwood for sale to lumber mills.
The Eads Bridge was a popular attraction for gawkers from higher, drier St. Louis. It also was a major escape route until the river swamped the east side's riverfront railyards.
The Madison County levee broke June 6. "It melted away like a pile of sand," said local flood-fighter Henry Brown.
Venice, Madison and parts of Granite City succumbed. Refugees crowded the upper floors of schools. Others waded to the Merchants Bridge for boxcar shuttles to St. Louis. Henry Edmonds, 80, of Madison, tried to herd his two cows to safety, but current swept away all three.
The Cahokia levee failed that night. The river pressed against the Illinois Central line protecting East St. Louis. More than 2,700 men sweated by torchlight to raise the embankment.
"If we can hold the Illinois Central, we have won the fight," Cook said. Just in case, he commandeered all carriages and wagons.
They lost early on June 10. Families splashed their way to factories or climbed onto roofs. Anna Rochell, 1110 Tudor Avenue, saved only her canary. The river crested at 38 feet, flooding the Relay Depot, the main railroad station.
Downtown, on marginally higher ground, was nearly surrounded by water. Relief workers established segregated refugee quarters — Camp Washington for whites, Camp Lincoln for blacks.
The 1903 flood is the 14th highest on record here. But it ranked second for its day and was East St. Louis' most damaging ever. It inspired construction of the city's first levees. Upgraded over the years, they held against the Great Flood of 1993.
East St. Louis Flood, 1903
Water rushing over railroad tracks in Madison, Ill., after the Mississippi River broke through the Madison County levees during the 1903 flood. (Missouri History Museum)
A horse cart at Wharf Street and the railroad trestle at the levee in downtown St. Louis during the flood of June 1903. The crest of 38 feet on June 10 is the 13th highest on record at St. Louis. At the time, it was the second highest here after the flood of 1844. The 1903 flood broke levees and overwhelmed meager defenses along railroad lines in the Metro East, flooding all or part of East St. Louis, Cahokia, Madison, Venice and Granite City. It was the worst flood ever in East St. Louis. It led to creation of that city's first levee system. (Missouri History Museum)
The ferry landing at Venice, Ill., during the 1903 flood. (Missouri History Museum)
Another view of houseboat dwellers. (Missouri History Museum)
The St. Louis riverfront, looking south from the Eads Bridge. (Missouri History Museum)
Floodwatchers line the Eads Bridge in June 1903. (Missouri History Museum)
Floodwatchers gather in a levee near Bissell Point in north St. Louis, near the foot of East Grand Avenue, during the 1903 flood. (Missouri History Museum)
Three young residents of Little Oklahoma, a houseboat community on the Mississippi River, during the flood of June 1903. Little Oklahoma, near Mallinckrodt Avenue in north St. Louis, was one of numerous houseboat colonies on both sides of the river on those days. Residents simply moved their boats inland as the river rose. (Missouri History Museum)
A barefoot boy is less worried about the floodwater than well-dressed gentlemen on the St. Louis riverfront. At right is the old railroad trestle that was eventually demolished to make way for the Gateway Arch grounds. (Missouri History Museum)
Another view of flooding at Bissell Point. (Missouri History Museum)
The flooded St. Louis riverfront in June 1903, looking northward from the Eads Bridge. (Missouri History Museum)
The Merchants Bridge at Venice. After the Madison County levees failed, flooding parts of Venice, Madison and Granite City, some refugees made it to the bridge and were evacuated by boxcars to St. Louis. (Missouri History Museum)
Refugees prepare to leave the flooded lumber yard in East St. Louis by ferryboat. (Missouri History Museum)
A flooded lumber yard in East St. Louis in June 1903. The rising Mississippi River covered the "Island," the name for the industrial and railroad bottomland along the river (current site of the Casino Queen), and backed up Cahokia Creek into East St. Louis. On June 10, the river overwhelmed the railroad embankments south of that city. (Missouri History Museum)
Children are rescued from a roof in East St. Louis during the 1903 flood. (Bowen Archive, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville)
Wrecked homes in East St. Louis during the 1903 flood. (Bowen Archive, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville)
Another view of flooding in East St. Louis. The "Big Four" was the nickname of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. (Missouri History Museum)
The Relay Depot, the railroad station in East St. Louis, swamped by the 1903 flood. When the Mississippi River flooded the depot, it shut off all rail service from St. Louis to the East. (Andrew Theising, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville)
A drawing in the Post-Dispatch, published June 7, 1903, of a levee break in Madison County. (Post-Dispatch)
Floodwatchers peer down upon the Mississippi River from the Eads Bridge during the 1903 flood. (Missouri History Museum)
The St. Louis riverfront, looking south from the Eads Bridge. (Missouri History Museum)
Refugees prepare to leave the flooded lumber yard in East St. Louis by ferryboat. (Missouri History Museum)
The Merchants Bridge at Venice. After the Madison County levees failed, flooding parts of Venice, Madison and Granite City, some refugees made it to the bridge and were evacuated by boxcars to St. Louis. (Missouri History Museum)
Another view of flooding in East St. Louis. The "Big Four" was the nickname of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. (Missouri History Museum)
