CHAPTER XXIII

THE EGYPT OF BATES COUNTY -- "MARAIS DES CYGNES" -- RECLAMATION -- PRETENSE -- NO FEASIBLE PLAN UNTIL 1906 -- PETITION PRESENTED -- VIEWERS AND APPRAISERS -- PROPOSED PLAN -- REMONSTRANCE -- REPORTS -- JUDGE McFADDEN -- REPORT APPROVED -- PERMANENT BOARD APPOINTED -- DUTIES OF BOARD AND COST OF WORK -- OBJECTIONS -- CONTRACT -- BONDS -- CONSTRUCTION -- LITIGATION -- COMPLETED -- RESULTS -- J. F. KERN

In the south half of Bates county lies its Egypt. Along the Marais des Cygnes and Osage rivers is a wide extended valley of rich black soil, formed from the silt deposits of frequent floods of these streams for ages. Their courses are so tortuous that it is out of the question for their channels to carry the rains off from their water sheds. "Marais des Cygnes" is a French phrase meaning "River of Swans," the curves and bends resembling the curves in the swan's neck, making the name suggestive. These rich valley lands have been recognized since the first settlement of the county as very valuable, if reclaimed. The state gave the land to the county with the understanding they should be reclaimed from the proceeds of their sale. Some pretense of reclamation was done, but the larger part of the proceeds from the sale of these lands was passed to the county school fund. Various plans of controlling the flood waters of these streams were agitated in a mild way for years, but not until 1906 was there any feasible plan offered. The state had passed laws enabling owners of such lands to form drainage districts and assess the lands therein for such improvements as was decided upon by engineers and approved by the court.

In that year a petition was presented to the land owners with a view of forming such a district, and was signed by the owners of a large per cent. of the land. This petition was addressed to the county court, consisting at that time, of J. W. McFadden presiding judge, P. A. Bruce and John Armstrong associate judges.

The court appointed A. H. Bell of Bloomington, Illinois, an experienced drainage engineer, Cyrus Requa, Charles Van Benthusen, and Robert Johnson as a preliminary board of viewers to go over the route of the proposed plan and report on their practicability.

The proposed plan was to dig a new straight channel for the river, commencing near what is known as the Marvel bridge and out-letting in the Osage river about a mile below old Belvoir Ferry. This channel, cut as straight as possible, would be about twenty-five miles long, while the river the same distance flowed seventy-three miles. After spending a few days going over the proposed route the viewers brought in their report or tried to. The owners of about twenty-five per cent. of the land, but representing a large majority of owners, had gotten busy with a remonstrance and had tried to inject politics into the matter and succeeded in getting Robert Johnson to bring in a minority adverse report. The other three made a favorable report to the court. This remonstrance was signed by some two hundred thirty owners and some who were not owners while the petitioners had only about seventy-five.

These remonstrators, encouraged by Johnson's adverse report, got very much in earnest and held meetings largely attended, to try to influence the court to deny the petition. The history of Bates county will not be justly written that does not give Judge McFadden and his court everlasting credit for being far-sighted enough and broad-minded enough, and having back bone enough to decide in favor of this improvement over such a large opposition.

The court approved the majority report of the preliminary viewers and then appointed a permanent board of viewers and an engineer. The court appointed A. H. Bell as engineer, J. J. March, J. W. Bard and Estes Smith as permanent viewers. The duty of this board was to go over the land, locate the improvements, classify each tract of land for benefits and estimate the entire cost of the work and assess each tract of land a sufficient sum to pay for the cost of the work in proportion to the classification. This work took about five months to complete. The entire cost of the work was estimated at three hundred eighty-six thousand dollars, and lands receiving one hundred per cent. benefits were assessed ten dollars and ninety-three cents per acre.

When this report was made the court advertised a day to hear any objections to the classifications. It took the court about eight days to go over the objections to the classifications, but the changes they made were only slight and reduced the total assessment only about eight thousand dollars. The court then approved the report of the permanent viewers and advertised a day for letting the work. At the letting there was a large attendance of contractors from many states. The bid of Timothy Faahey & Sons to take the entire work at the estimated cost of eight cents per cubic yard was accepted. Bids were all made subject to the money being available from the sale of the bonds issued against the assessments. The sale of three hundred seventy thousand dollars of the bonds of the district was then advertised and the sale was attended by bond houses from many cities. The bid of fifteen thousand dollars premium made by McDonald-McCoy & Company of Chicago was accepted. The bonds were sold subject to the approval of the proceedings by Wood & Oakley, attorneys of Chicago, Illinois. Judge Wood required consent of the Missouri Pacific railroad to cross its tracks before he would approve the proceedings. This required tedious negotiations. The viewers had assessed the railroad company fifteen thousand dollars for benefits and could not comply with Judge Wood's requirements until the assessment against the railroad company had been canceled by a court decree. This done, the contractors at once commenced moving in their machinery. The work was all done by floating dredges. There were five at work at one time, two of them machines with two and one-half cubic yard buckets.

The construction work was completed in 1909, except some rock work in the lower end which the contractor had sublet to A. V. Wills & Sons. Litigation over this matter is still pending in the Federal Court. The county court re-let the rock work and it was removed.

Some long continued rainy spells had demonstrated to the land owners after the ditch was completed that its capacity was not sufficient to carry all floods and a second proceeding was taken through the county court and an additional sum of one hundred seventy-one thousand dollars was raised to dig the ditch ten feet deeper and to cut off four big bends in the old channel. This was done and the second work was completed in 1911. This work has so reduced the flood hazard that large acreages of this rich land are producing heavy crops of wheat and corn. The wheat crop of the valley in 1917 alone would pay for the last assessment against the land to deepen the ditch. There is not a doubt but this work and supplementary work that will follow by individuals will ultimately entirely reclaim all these lands, and the "History of Bates County" would not be complete without the history of this, the biggest and most important work ever done in and for Bates county. There are forty-one thousand acres in this drainage district and when producing the added wealth to the county together with added conveniences and improved health conditions will make this district a real Bates county Egypt.

Many of the land owners did much to help put this great work through to completion, but to the untiring push, energy and stick-to-itiveness of J. F. Kern, the chief promoter and originator, belongs the credit of its completion.