a roar like thunder, the heavy stones floating like corks half way across the park. This sudden flood released sped to the Jefferson street bridge south of the park and carried it out, swept out-houses and small buildings, left the Avenue bridge intact, but took out the foot bridge and poured into the flat bounded by the old banks of Ralston. There it left the horses and cow in Col. Trowbridge's stable swimming, drowned one pig in his pen and floated another out alive, rose to the chins of Stertet's tall mules in a stable in the rear of the old Reynold's lot, floated several piles of Porter's lumber from south of Trowbridge's up on the Washington street fill and turned the old bed of Ralston east of Gilbert street, into a lake of several feet deep. On the bank of this lake stands the Berryhill house, a brick building. Mr. Jack Reeder and family occupy its under story. Mr. Reeder had left his cow tethered to his wagon by a sixty feet rope. He was in bed and asleep when he heard some one call out that his cow was drowning. He jumped out of bed into water up to his knees. Before he could get his wife and child up stairs the water was over the bed. South of the B., C. R. & N. passenger depot the flood routed out Uncle Boone, the colored man, and his numerous family and they waded out to the high ground. The damage to city on bridges, etc., is about $1,000, that to the road and private property about $5,000.

The following additional account pertains to the July storm and flood, from a week to ten days after the foregoing:

June had been showery this year, but the streams were not kept full, though the ground was supersaturated. The June rains closed with the great fall of the 27th, and there was hardly any more rain in the Iowa river water-shed until Sunday, July 10, when it began at Marshalltown, distant by river from Iowa City about 200 miles.

The rain began here on Saturday night and was very heavy. Next day the local drainage raised the river about 14 feet. On Monday it began to fall and by Tuesday night had receded five feet. Then began the second rise, the great flood initiated at Marshalltown, which had swept 200 miles of bottorn lands, inundated three cities and reached us hungry for more spoils. All day the water' rose. About ten o'clock it crossed the causeway to the lower bridge, and two hours later it swept over the much higher approach to the Centennial bridge. The water rose, crept, crawled up and up, until it was twenty-two and a half feet above low water level, had cut off travel over the bridges, and made the river in many places five miles wide.

The first building to move was Dietz & Hemmer's grain house, standing near their mill, a mile north of the city. When it moved into the stream the water was within five feet of the floors of the two iron wagon bridges and that near to the bottom cord of the Rock Island railroad bridge. In the emergency Mr Hemmer ran to the river and put out crews in a half dozen skiffs and they, by dint of pushing and pulling, got the house out of the current, and ran it upon a high point just north of the east end of the Centennial bridge. Here it was in constant danger of swinging into the stream, and attacking the bridge. The causeway is at that end of the bridge, and if the house could be swung into the water on the upper side of that it would be safe. Messrs. Gil. and Frank Fletcher went out in skiffs, chopped through and fastened ropes around the corner posts; these were made fast on the shore. The Rock Island company sent up its bridge gang, and by their help, when the water rose so as to

float the house off the point, it was pulled in to the east bank and made safe. This bit of good work saved the county about $35,000 of bridges, and the Rock Island company as much more, for the house was loaded with five tons of grain and mill-feed, and would have swept the channel. The village of Coralville, one mile up stream from this city, suffered severely. All of its lower part was deserted; about twenty houses were inundated. The manufacturers there suffered. The river-wall of M. T. Close & Son's great paper-mill fell in upon the machinery, and the dam was greatly injured by channelling around its east end.

Mr. Frank Fletcher's ice-house on the bank suffered a considerable loss. Between Coralville and the city Mr. Wm. Berger's ice-house was not only emptied, but floated off and destroyed, and Mr. Warner's large ice-house near Dietz & Hemmer's mill was emptied.

Fortunately our city stands high above all possible floods, with only a small part of its homes below the cruel line of inundation. That lower

At

part was covered, driving about twenty families to higher ground. the foot of the Dubuque street hill, below the Rock Island railroad track skiffs debarked for voyages all over the bottom, to the glass works, packing house, and distillery, all of which, however, were above the flood line, and suffered no injury.

The damage is inestimable. The bottom farms through Madison, Penn, Monroe, Jefferson, Newport, Lucas, Liberty, Pleasant Valley, and Fremont townships were laid waste.

When the flood was at its height on Tuesday Mr. John P. Dostal brought his steam yacht down from the club grounds near Butler's landing, entered Coralville under full speed and steamed right down the main street in front of the paper-mill, across Clear creek bridge, over Dietz & Hemmer's dam, and landed at the city. His steamer was covered with flags, and the daring voyage was the sensation of the day. Coralville was short of provisions and telephoned an order to Mr. Hummer's wholesale grocery. The goods were put upon the steamer and delivered on the up trip. This is an incident to remember, for half a life-time will probably pass before another steamboat is seen in the streets of Coralville.

In connection with the above accounts of the watery wastefulness of 1881, the following historic reminiscence was published:

THE PIONEER FLOOD OF 1851.

The first great flood after the white settlement of this valley occurred in 1851. That rise came after a wet season that kept the stream about full, and one that was unexampled in the violence of its rains. deepening to a waterfall early in August of ten inches in twenty-four hours! The water rose to the west side of the University campus, which was then the state-house yard. There were but few houses on the bottoms, but they were deluged. In one on the second bench, occupied by Mr. T. W. Wilson, the water rose two and a half feet, expelling the family. The Indians during that flood pointed out a high-water mark one foot above the highest point reached, which was, at this place, twenty-five feet above low-water mark. Within a few weeks of thirty years the flood of 1851 has been duplicated.

THE STEIN MURDER AND SUICIDE.

Nov. 5, 1881, a man known as Anton Stein, but whose real name proved to be A. Skierecki, enacted a horrible tragedy in Iowa City.

He was thirty-seven years of age. He came to America in 1877, and to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1879. In June, 1880, he courted and married the widow of Mr. Goering, at Cedar Rapids, the daughter of P. Hess, a German family that settled in Iowa City in 1862.

Stein's wife commenced a suit for divorce, charging extreme cruelty and gross neglect, and such other charges as are usually made for grounds of divorce. On the 2d day of November, 1881, the suit was heard before Judge Hedges, in the Johnson county court, and a divorce was granted to her. The State Press gave the following additional particulars:

Stein passed that night at his boarding house, Mrs. Spryng's on south Dubuque street. He rose late last Saturday morning [Nov. 5], dressed himself elaborately in a suit his wife's money had bought, and asked for breakfast. The landlady told him it was too late for breakfast, but he could have a cup of coffee. He took this and left the house a little after 8 o'clock. He next visited Mr. Boal's office, and had such a threatening air that the office boy, who was alone, locked the door. Mrs. Stein was living with her father and mother, on Market street, next door west of the Union bakery, in a modest one-story house, built by the late Geo. L. Ruppert for his venerable father. Stein was under injunction of the court to keep away from this house. From Mr. Boal's office he went to Luse's shoe shop, where Mr. Hess worked, and finding him there at his bench, went straightway to the ungarded house, to seek his prey in the defenseless woman and little children. The house has a front room, entered by an outer door in the southeast corner; next north of the front room is a bed room and sort of sewing room and snuggery, and north of that the kitchen, which opens to the east on a pleasant porch. Lizzie was in this kitchen, tending to her house plants and singing over the congenial duty, for she was young, of kind and gentle heart, and a mild temper and innate ladyhood that were not scarred deeply by the miserable mistake of her unhappy marriage. The shadow of Stein was cast athwart the window, and he raised the latch and entered. She cried to her mother "er kommt?” "He comes," and turned to face him. He asked her to bring him a book which was in the middle room, and belonged to him. She went for it, and returned with it and his mother's picture, which she handed to him first. The cold-blooded wretch took in his left hand the picture of the woman who bore him, and armed with a glitterering knife sharpened to exquisite edge, with his right hand stabbed at the bosom of the woman he had at the altar sworn to cherish! The old mother was away in the little front room, and ran to fight for her child. Lizzie struggled with all the desperation of the strong young life which was draining from stab after stab. At length smitten by twelve wounds, the floor slippery with her blood, she fell, and the wretch knelt upon her breast and finished his butchery by nearly severing her head from the body. Rising he turned upon her mother, and gave her a ghastly gash in the throat, not severing the windpipe or artery, however. Mrs. Hess ran then into the street, bleeding terribly, and screaming, for in that intense fight with the bloody butcher, the only words spoken had been the two, "I will," uttered by Lizzie just as the swift knife was falling upon her. The alarm, from mouth to mouth, and by many telephones, speedily gathered a great crowd. Stein stood for a moment in the door, menacing the crowd. Dr. Lytle pushed past him. He re-entered the kitchen, stood for a moment

in the door of the middle room, and fell on his back, dead. He had probably prepared himself with a dose of Prussic acid, and with it ended where he should have begun.

A moment after, we saw them. She lay, as she had fallen. The clouds were clearing away. The sun kissed the flowers that had been her latest care, and passing them lighted up her crown of rich hair, and her blood that besprinkled and stained its glory glistened like jewels. In the front room as he fell lay the damned butcher, who, without cause, excuse or provocation, had rewarded her confidence with abuse, repaid her kindness with beatings, had betrayed the privacies of her life, reduced her fortune, preyed upon her peace and finally murdered her.

Weeping and wandering around were her little girl and boy; sunny memories of happier days were they; heartache and tears only could make answer to their pitiful loneliness.

The murderer's body was taken away, and finally was given over to the Medical Department for a post mortem, to learn if possible the poison

that killed him.

The little girl and boy have since died. The mother-in-law is still living, having fully recovered from her frightful wound in the throat, but not without some ugly scars.

EXCURSION TO DES MOINES-1882.

December 6, 1882, the Iowa City Republican led an excursion of citizens of Johnson county on a trip to Des Moines. The State Register reported that there were near 700 of the excursionists. The C., R. I. & P. railroad furnished the train; and it was accompanied by the University band and the West Liberty band. At Des Moines the visitors were escorted from the depot to Moore's Opera House, and here speeches of welcome were made by Capt. P. V. Carey, Mayor of Des Moines; Hon. B. R. Sherman, Governor of Iowa, and U. S. Senator Geo. G. Wright. Responses were made on behalf of Iowa City by Dr. E. F. Clapp, and on behalf of Johnson county by ex-State senator S. H. Fairall. Hon. James Wilson, congressman elect from the Fifth district (which includes Johnson county) was also present and made a speech.

After dinner a train of carriages was provided by the Des Moines city council, and many of the excursionists visited the magnificent new capitol building, of which every loyal Iowan feels justly proud. During the excursion day a severe snow storm occurred, and culminated in setting the thermometer down to 17 below zero at the U. S. signal station in Des Moines.

CHAPTER VII.-PART 2.

PROMINENT CITIZENS DECEASED.

Governor Lucas.-John Gilbert.-Joseph T. Fales.-Capt. F. M. Irish.-Dr. Wm. Vogt,Hon. Rush Clark.

ROBERT LUCAS, THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF IOWA.

Robert Lucas, the subject of this sketch, was the fourth son and ninth child of William and Susannah Lucas, and was born April 1, 1781, in Jefferson county, Virginia, a few miles from Harper's Ferry, where his ancestors settled more than a hundred years ago. His father, who was descended from William Penn, was born January 18, 1743, and his mother, of Scotch extraction, October 8, 1745. They were married about the year 1760, and reared a family of six sons and six daughters. His father, who had served as a captain in the Continental army during the revolutionary war, and had distinguished himself at the battle of Bloody Run, emigrated with his family to Scioto county, Ohio, at the very beginning of the present century. In leaving the slave state of Virginia for the free embryo commonwealth of Ohio, which had not as yet been admitted into the Union, the elder Lucas performed one of those noble and generous acts so characteristic of the better class of those who were bred under the patriarchal system in the olden time. He freed every one of his adult slaves who wished to remain in Virginia, and provided for the younger ones, most of whom he took with him to Ohio, till they became of legal age and able to support themselves.

The early education of Gov. Lucas was obtained chiefly before leaving Virginia from an old Scotch schoolmaster named McMullen, who taught him mathematics and surveying, the latter affording him remunerative employment immediately upon his entrance into the new and unchained country of Ohio.

On the 33 day of April, 1810, Gov. Lucas was married at Portsmouth, the county seat of Scioto county, to Elizabeth Brown, who died Oct. 18, 1812, leaving an infant daughter, the late Mrs. Minerva E. B. Sumner, of West Liberty, Muscatine county, Iowa. On March 7, 1816, he formed a second matrimonial alliance; this time with Friendly A. Sumner, a young lady of twenty years, a native of Vermont, but who had recently immigrated to Ohio with her father's family from Haverhill, Coos county, New Hampshire. Of this marriage, there were four sons and three daughters. Edward W. Lucas, lieutenant colonel of the 14th Iowa volunteers, was taken prisoner with his regiment by the Confederates, at the battle of Shiloh.

The first public office held by Gov. Lucas was that of county surveyor of Scioto county, the commission from Gov. Edward Tiffin, of Ohio, appointing him such being dated December 26, 1803, when Gov. Lucas