THEBES: RESIDENTS SETTLE ON HILL AND RIVERBANKS BEFORE FLOODING TAKES ITS TOLL

The town of Thebes, Ill., was originally established by two brothers who settled along the Mississippi River.

Thebes was established as a community known as Sparhawk Landing when the Sparhawk brothers cut and shipped poplar to New Orleans for use in furniture production in the early 1800s. As more settlers from New Orleans came to get wood there, the town was established.

The townspeople settled both on the hill and close to the river. But Thebes has experienced heavy flooding over the years, which forced most people to move up the hill, away from the river.

In 1844, one year after its establishment as the town of Thebes, Alexander County designated the town as the county seat. It remained so for 14 years.

The courthouse rests on a small bluff above the town and it still stands as a historic marker of the river town. It was built entirely from local products and was completed in 1848.

Thebes was originally a shipping point for livestock and flour. Between 1907 and 1920, and it had a few industries. Just south of town, a black powder and dynamite plant was located near Fayville. But the plant was closed after several explosions which resulted in a number of deaths.

"In the early 1900s, Thebes was served by three railroad lines," said, Zelma Caldwell, member of Thebes' historical society. "The C&EI and the Illinois Central ran under the hill and the Missouri Pacific ran on the hill and also over the river bridge.

"The water ways also provided boat traffic, which brought in merchandise and supplies. The farmers from the area would drive their livestock such as horses, sheep, cattle and hogs into town by foot for shipment on packet boats. These boats came docked twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday."

Prior to the building of the railroad bridge, there was a railroad line that ran into the river, Caldwell said. The engine would back down an incline into the river to put the cars on the barges which carried them to the other side where they were unloaded and continued on their destination.

The Thebes Railroad bridge was officially opened to traffic on April 18, 1905, when a steam-powered passenger train made the four-mile trip from the Illinois shore to the Missouri side of the river.

It had taken three years to erect the bridge which spanned a distance from Illmo to Thebes, Caldwell said. When the bridge was dedicated, 25 locomotives were placed on it to test its strength, she said.

"We had always known that some people had lost their lost in its construction," Caldwell said.

She said the early townspeople worked in related railroad industries, like the lumber yards or on the C&I Railroad which turned around in Thebes, but there were also still a lot of farmers in the area.

"During World War II the town really boomed," Caldwell said. "The railroad was really big during this time and there was a round-the-clock shift of guardsman on the bridge because they were afraid of sabotage."

Thebes was a thriving little town at one time, with industries, stores and doctors, but they just disappeared, said Pauline Tucker, a member of Thebes' historical society.

Caldwell said, "Years ago, we had as much a town under the hill as we had on top of the hill, but everything under the hill had to be moved due to the river flooding. Only one original dwelling remains under the hill because the owner refused to move.

"Now because of the possibility of flooding, there is a requirement that a person cannot build close to the river without building above flood level."

Federal housing built first under the hill and there were about 12 units that had to be moved up on the hill out of flood risk, Caldwell said. After that, the city received a grant to construct a new 40-unit housing on the hill, she said.

The courthouse remains a historical site, but there are few businesses left in town, Caldwell said. "We only have one little shop you can buy snack-type food and a brand new post office," she said.

Caldwell said rail and water were the only forms of transportation until a highway was built. "There weren't any paved roads until 1929, when the dirt work on Route 3 began. It was completed in 1932," she said.

The Thebes precinct was the last one in the county to get paved roads, Caldwell said. And that is only because the residents have paid to have them built, she said.

Some of the town's recent flooding has been caused by the new dikes built on both sides of the river, Caldwell said. These were built to keep the channel open, but when this is done, it can back up river water into Thebes, she said. Thebes experienced its last bad flood in 1983, she said.

The Thebes river bridge is still used today, Caldwell said. There are probably close to 50 trains that run over the bridge each day.

Tucker said the current population is about 400 people. There are only two houses left on the river front and those are built on stilts. But since they were finished recently, they have not been tested yet by a flood, she said.