History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 26

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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In 1820, the Troop was reorganized, with John Hinkson, captain ; Samuel M. Leiper, first lieutenant ; John Wells, second lieutenant ; Evans Way, first ser- geant; and George Kirk, color sergeant. For some years it was part of the first squadron of Mont- gomery, Chester, and Delaware County cavalry. In time interest in the organization began to flag, and it was believed that it might be revived in 1830, when an election was held, which resulted in the selection of Samuel M. Leiper as captain, Edward H. Engle as first lieutenant, John Wells as second lieutenant, Evans Way as first sergeant, and George Kirk as color sergeant. The interest had gone, however, and after dragging along for six years the organization, in 1836, finally disbanded. The Delaware Couuty Blues was also an outgrowth of the war of 1812, and was commanded at first by Capt. George Hawkins, and subsequently by Capt. George Litzenberg. It pre- served its organization until 1836, when it also dis- banded. In 1817 the Delaware County Fencibles was commanded by Capt. George G. Leiper, and as such took part in the ceremonies at Paoli. Judge Leiper was subsequently lieutenant-colonel of the Delaware County Battalion, and on Sept. 4, 1823, announced his appointment of George Litzenberg as adjutant, Charles Bonsall quartermaster, and Dr. Morris C. Shallcross as surgeon. Dr. Wilson was major of the battalion ; Capt. George Hawkins had command of the Delaware County Blues, Capt. Myers of the Delaware County Volunteers, and Capt. Weaver of the Pennsylvania Artillerists. The latter company was organized about 1819, with John J. Richards as captain, and at his death, in 1822, Joseph Weaver, Jr., succeeded to the command, to give place in 1828 to Capt. William Martin, and he subsequently to Samuel A. Price. The latter officer, in 1832, was colonel of the First Brigade,

All that I have learned respecting military organi- zations in the county previous to the Revolution has already been related, which is equally true of the war of Independence. After peace was assured the militia of the State was regulated by law. The Pennsylvania Packet states that at a meeting of the Chester County militia, commanded by Edward Ver- non, on Oct. 25, 1789, Rev. James Conarroe, of Marcus Hook, was appointed chaplain. This notice was after the county of Delaware had been erected, but Edward Vernon and Mr. Conarroe were residents of the new county, and in all probability the entire organization they represented was from the southeasterly part of the old county of Chester (the present Delaware County). The act of 1792, organizing the militia of ! Third Division, and with Lieut. John K. Zeilin and J. 7

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

M. G. Lescure, represented the county of Delaware at the military convention of the State, which assembled at Harrisburg January 2d of that year. Col. Price was one of the four vice-presidents of that convention. He was succeeded in command of the Pennsylvania Artillerists by Capt. John K. Zeiliu. In 1817 the Union Troop, of Chester and Delaware Counties, was a mili- tary organization existing in the two counties, and at Paoli in 1817 had the right of the line under the com- maud of Capt. Harris. This organization continued until 1838, when it was commanded by Capt. William Haines, and John Lindsay was its first lieutenant. In 1824 the Forty-ninth Regiment of militia of the county of Delaware was commanded by Col. John Smith, Lient .- Col. Benjamin F. Johnson, and Maj. Abuer Barrett; while the Thirty-eighth Regiment, of the same county, was commanded by Col. Benjamin Wetherby, Lieut .- Col. Benjamin Smith, and Maj. Jonathan David.

In 1857, the Delaware County Volunteers, organ- ized about 1822, was disbanded, and from its fragments a new company-the Harmony Rangers-was formed, Capt. Jesse L. Green commanding, who was succeeded by Capt. Simon Leany. It was disbanded in 1842. In 1834, Lieut .- Col. Henry Myers was in command of the Delaware County Volunteer Battalion, succeeding Col. George G. Leiper in that office.

Besides the foregoing military organizations, in 1824 there was a company of militia known as the Washington Artillerists, in 1833 the Union Guards, Capt. George Kirk, and Jesse Sharpless orderly ser- geant, and in 1840 the Delaware County Rangers, Capt. Samuel Hall.

On Friday, Oct. 11, 1833, tlie City Troop of Phila- delphia, commanded by Capt. Hart, was met at Darby by the Delaware County Troop and escorted to Chester, where they remained until the Monday following, when they returned to Philadelphia, stopping to dine on that day at the tavern kept by J. R. Lamplugh, in Darby.

During the riots of 1844 in Philadelphia, a meeting was held at the court-house in Chester, on July 15th, at which resolutions were adopted calling for the im- mediate organization of a corps of volunteers, " citi- zen soldiers," which body was directed to be equipped and armed, so that, if necessary, the authorities could call on it to preserve public order. The next day, July 16, 1844, the Union Troop of Delaware and Chester Counties marched to Philadelphia, reaching that city in the evening, when they immediately re- lieved the Philadelphia Cavalry, which had been in service for some days, and were then worn out from loss of sleep.

In August, 1844, the Delaware County Grays were organized by the election of John K. Zeilin, captain, Charles W. Raborg, first lieutenant, and Joseph Tay- lor second lieutenant. The following year the Forty- ninth Regiment of militia, iu this county, was com- manded by Col. John K. Zeilin, and C. W. Raborg

was adjutant, while the companies composing the organization were commanded by Capts. Walter, Johnson, Crosby, Eyre, Ulrich, and Irwin. The pub- lic feeling was then strongly adverse to military ser- vice. On May 13, 1845, Maj. Charles Peck, brigade inspector, visited Chester, reaching that place an hour before noon, when some of the older citizens waited on him, and apprised him that the boys in the town were armed with eggs, which they proposed to present to him in no quiet manner, and he hurried away with- out inspecting the undisciplined militia, which had assembled for that purpose, according to his published orders. On Saturday, June 13, 1846, the Delaware County Grays were inspected by Maj. Peck, Capt. Zeilin having, through Governor Shunk, offered the services of the company to President Polk for the Mexican war. The quota of Pennsylvania being filled, however, the offer was not accepted.

The next year Maj. Peck again visited Chester, when he was made the victim of a practical joke, which, as tradition ascribed, was suggested by John M. Broomall. Several of the practical jokers who then infested Chester induced the major to visit the prison, on the pretext that within its ancient precincts were several relics of the long ago worthy of the no- tice of a stranger. The plan worked to a charm. After the party had gained admission to the jail, the door was locked behind them, the keys were con- cealed, and all that day until evening the military gentleman and two of the roysters of Chester stood looking through a grated window in the second story, calling to the people below in the street to procure their release. The keys could not be found until night had nearly come, but several times during the day the imprisoned men lowered strings to the crowd below and drew them up with provisions and other refreshments attached thereto. After his release Maj Peck had several other jokes played upon him before he shook the dust of Chester from his feet, never to return to it again.

Not only was the brigade inspector personally trifled with, but the commissioners of Delaware County failed to enforce the collection of the militia tax ; hence Maj. Peck instructed his counsel to bring suit against the county commissioners for their neglect in not issuing duplicates to the collectors for collection of the military fines. The suit, however, never was pressed, the act being repealed hy the Legislature in 1849.

The following is the list of persons holding the office of brigade inspector for Delaware County, so far as I have been able to obtain their names:

William Brooke, lieutenant of the county of Delaware .... Aug. 21, 1791 William Brooke, brigade inspector. ..

.April 11, 1793

John Crosby, brigade inspector.

John Crozer, brigade inspector. .April 25, 1800

William Brooke, brigade inspector

1813

Casper Snyder, brigule inspector. .. April,

1815

Col. James Peck, brigade inspector .. .April,

1824

Nathaniel Brooke, brigade inspector. .April,

1838

Thomas James, brigade inspector .. April,

Maj. Charles Peck, brigade inspector. April, 1842

Walter J. Arnold, brigade inspector. .April, 1861

.April 30, 1799

STORMS, FRESHETS, AND EARTHQUAKES.

Maj. Arnold was appointed in 1859, but did not take out his commission until the attack on Sumter made it necessary to have such an officer to aid in forwarding troops in the early days of the civil war.

CHAPTER XIV.

STORMS, FRESHETS, AND EARTHQUAKES.

WE have little save tradition respecting storms, freshets, and earthquakes in the olden times. It is only within the last half-century that any circum- stantial records have been kept of such incidents in our annals. On March 22, 1662,1 William Beckman, in a letter, mentions the day before the tide in the Delaware was so high that a "galiot" was driven out of the Kil, but was recovered by the sailors of the ship " Di Purmerlander Kerck." The same night she was driven to the other (New Jersey) side of the river, and again the sailors rescued her from destruc- tion.

In 1683 we know that Chester mill and dam, which was located at the present site of Upland, "were soon carried away by the flood," and subsequent thereto a new dam, saw- and grist-mill was erected at that point, but the second dam, we are told in 1705, was " carried away by the flood." 2 In 1740, tradition states, an extraordinary and destructive freshet oc- curred in all the creeks in the county, but beyond that fact no particulars have been handed down to the present generation. In the winter of 1795 a heavy, warm rain occasioned the melting of the snow on the hills and the ice in the runs and creeks of Delaware County, but as the streams were not, as in more recent years, blocked with dams, which backed up the water until the weight broke away the ob- struction, the damage then sustained, although at the time it occurred regarded as great, was trifling when compared with that of 1843. In 1822 a notice- able freshet occurred in Delaware County consequent "on the rapid melting of the deep snow. The mill- ponds were covered with a thick ice, which was broken up, and occasioned considerable damage in addition to that caused by the weight of the water in the creeks." 3 And again, in November, 1830, when the river rose so high that the piers at Chester were submerged and the embankments on the river were overflowed.

On Friday night, Jan. 24, 1839, rain began to fall, and continued without intermission until Saturday afternoon, when it ceased ; the snow and ice, melt- ing under the warm rains, filling the streams until

1 N. Y. Historical Record, vol. xii. p. 365.

2 Deed for Samuel Carpenter to Caleb Pussey, Dec. 19, 1706.

" Smith's " History of Delaware County," p. 355.

they became more swollen than had happened for forty years before, and the ice, broken into masses and cakes, crashed and ground against each other as the rising water swept them outward to the river. In many places the ice gorged the streams, damming the waters up until the pressure became so great that the temporary obstacle was torn away, and the arrested torrent burst in one great wave onward in its course, sweeping away mill-dams, bridges, and doing other damages as it sped seaward. The Westtown stage, as it crossed the hollow on the Providence side, near the bridge ou Crum Creek, on the road from Springfield meeting-house to Rose Tree Tavern, was carried away by the irresistible velocity of the current, which rushed round the wing walls of the bridge at a dis- tance of about eighty yards from that structure. When the stage was borne away by the water it fortunately contained but two passengers, Joseph Waterman and a colored woman. They, as well as the driver, succeeded in getting free from the vehicle, and, catching some bushes as they swept along, man- aged to support themselves until assistance came. The driver finally swam to shore after being in the water three-quarters of an hour, while the passengers were extricated from their unhappy plight by means of ropes lowered to them by the residents in the neighborhood, who gathered to their assistance, but not until they had been in the icy water nearly three hours and were almost frozen. One of the horses was drowned, and the other was not taken out until four hours had elapsed .* On Saturday afternoon two sons of George Serrill, of Darby, made an attempt to save two horses on the marsh, a few miles below that vil- lage, but it was impossible to get to the animals, and turning to retrace their way the water had risen so much that the horses they rode became fractious, and plunged down a bank into the main creek. The riders swam ashore, abandoning the animals, but the latter also landed safely. The two horses on the meadow remained there until the Tuesday following before they could be reached and some hay taken to them. They were found in almost three feet of water, and so completely surrounded by ice that it was impossi- ble to extract them. On Saturday evening a widow woman and her six children, living on Tinicum meadow, had to be taken off in a boat, the water at the time surrounding the house to the depth of seven

+ John C. Beatty states that George Dunn, seeing the woman in the water, ran half a mile and got s rope from the Rock Honse, and making it fast he sprang iuto the stream, swam to the woman, and by mesos of the rope she was drawn ashore. When the news was brought to the axe-factory six or eight men ran to the place and found Waterman standing on a post in & fence below the bridge. It was learned ha could not swim, and just after this fact was made koown a cake of ice struck the post, throwing him into the current. For twenty minutes he was not seen, and then he was discovered standing on another post, his face just out of the water. A tree was felled so that it resched towards him, and George Dunu walked along it and cast a rope to Waterman, who caught it, and he was drawn ashore. Next spring, after the ica had all washed away, Mr. Beatty found the canvas mail-bag, but its contents were entirely ruined,

100

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, ENNSYLVANIA.

feet. The inmates had sought safety in the second story, and were taken out through the window fam- ishing and almost frozen. Severe as was the con- dition of that family, the situation of a man, his wife, .and four children, residing on the bank of the Dela- ware, who had remained without food or fire for three days until relief came, was more distressing. One of the children was so benumbed with the cold that it was totally blind for nearly a day, while the other little ones were all more or less frost-bitten. The party who went to their assistance bore the children in their arms along the bank, between three and four miles, to a place of safety. A family residing on the meadow, between Darby Creek and the Schuylkill (not in Delaware County), seemed absolutely beyond relief, for around the dwelling for miles the ice and water had accumulated. But on Saturday afternoon a large boat was manned and pushed out across the meadow in the direction of the dwelling. The water froze on the oars, and the drifting ice-cakes seemed ax if they would crush the boat, so heavily did they strike against its sides, but the crew held firmly to their purpose, and succeeded in rescuing the family, -a man, wife, and two children,-who without fire, food, and but scantily clothed, were in a perishing condition when help came to them. They were landed at William Davis' house on Darby Creek, who sheltered them. The woman was so completely exhausted that no sooner had she been received into Mr. Davis' dwelling than she fainted, and was with difficulty revived.

Many bridges were swept away and dam-breasts broken by the pressure of the flood; that at Penn's Grove and Rockdale was completely demolished. On Chester Creek, at Knowlton, John P. Crozer sustained damages amounting to five thousand dollars ; William G. Flower, from Chester Mills, had fifty thousand feet of lumber floated away; William Eyre, Jr., of Chester, lost fifteen hundred feet of Inmber ; J. P. & William Eyre had fifty tons of coal swept off the wharf at the same place, and Samuel Bancroft had a boat loaded with coal to sink at the dock; Jabez Bunting, of Darby, lost three horses by the flood, and a break was made in the bank of Darby Creek, which caused the overflow of the Philadelphia, Wilming- ton and Baltimore Railroad, and interrupted travel for several days.

In four years after this freshet Delaware County was visited by a cloud-burst, which wrought wide- spread destruction along all the streams within its water-powers. The circumstances connected with the noted "Lammas Flood" are briefly these :

boundary that were of sufficient size to be termed | places in the same neighborhood, as is manifested

On Saturday morning, Aug. 5, 1843, at daybreak, the sky indicated rain, and about seven o'clock a moderate fall set in, which, while it slackened, never entirely ceased until between the hours of two and six o'clock that afternoon, when the extraordinary opening of "the windows of heaven" took place

which made such extended ruin and misery in a brief period of time. The rain, when falling most abundantly, came down in snch showers that the fields in that part of the county removed several miles back from the river are said to have been flooded with water almost immediately, and where the road was lower than the surface of the ground on either side, the water poured into the highway in a constant stream of miniature cascades. The light- ning played incessantly through the falling torrents, reflected from all sides in the watery mirrors in the fields producing a weird and spectral appearance, such that those who witnessed it could evermore recall. A peculiar feature of the storm was that Cobb's Creek, on the extreme eastern, and the Brandy- wine, on the western boundary of the county, were not swollen to any remarkable degree, clearly show- ing that the territory where the violence of the clond- burst occurred was noticeably restricted to the feeders and bodies of Chester, Ridley, Crum, and Darby Creeks.

Dr. Smith states that " as a general rule, the heavy rain occurred later as we proceed from the source of the stream towards their mouths. The quantity of rain which fell decreases as we proceed in the same direction, particularly from the middle parts of the county downwards. In those sections of the county where its greatest violence was expended, the char- acter of the stream more nearly accorded with that of a tropical hurricane than with anything which apper- tained to this region of country. The clouds wore an unusually dark and lowering appearance, of which the whole atmosphere seemed in some degree to par- take, and this circumstance, no doubt, gave that peculiarly vivid appearance to the incessant flashes of lightning which was observed by every one. The peals of thunder were loud and almost continuous. The clouds appeared to approach from different direc- tions, and to concentrate at a point not very distant from the zenith of the beholder. In many places there was but very little wind, the rain falling in nearly perpendicular streams; at other places it blew a stiff breeze, first from the east or northeast and sud- ! denly shifting to the southwest, while at a few points it blew in sudden gusts with great violence, accom- panied with whirlwinds, which twisted off and pros- trated large trees, and swept everything before it."1

The hurricane which occurred in Bethel township during the storm is thus described :

" The wind blew from different points at different

" from the position of uprooted trees, etc. A peach- orchard belonging to Mr. Clayton was blown down, the trees lying toward the northeast. An apple- orchard not very distant, lays prostrated towards the southeast. At John Larkins', two miles north of Clayton's, the gale appears to have been most violent.

1 Dr. Smith's " History of Delaware County," p. 360.

I01

STORMS, FRESHETS, AND EARTHQUAKES.

The wind came from the southeast, and tore up a large quantity of heavy timber (said to be about two hun- dred cords) all in a narrow strip, not more than two hundred yards in width. A valley of woodland, bounded by pretty high hills, had nearly all of its timber blown down, and, what is very remarkable, the trees are not generally laid lengthwise of the valley but across it, with their tops towards the northeast, while on the adjacent hills but few trees were up- rooted; one very large white-oak, however, which was deply and strongly rooted in a clay soil, was blown down."1

The almost instantaneous rise of the water in the creeks throughout the county is hardly paralleled in any flood on record, and the manner in which the current is related to have moved down the various streams to the Delaware would be incredible if it were not that the destruction it produced fully sustains the statements. In Cobb's Creek, as before mentioned, the water did not rise to a height beyond that usual in times of freshets, while Darby Creek, separated from Cobb's, in Upper Darby, by less than a mile of inter- vening land, was a wild, struggling torrent, swollen seventeen feet beyond its usual level, crushing even solid masonry before it as it rushed outward towards the river. Ithan Creek, a branch of Darby Creek, in Radnor, rose to such an unprecedented height that the arched stone bridge which spanned the stream on the old Lancaster road, near Radnor Friends' meet- ing-house, unable to vent the water, was undermined and fell, allowing the torrent to escape through its broken archway. On the west branch of Darby Creek, before that feeder enters Delaware County, consider- able damage was done in broken dams, which, freeing the water therein restrained, resulted in augmenting largely the force of the freshet, which rushed in irre- sistible force to Hood's bridge, where the Goshen road crosses the creek, and the double arched stone struc- ture there yielded before the mass of water that was hurled against it, attaining at that point a height of seven feet beyond the highest point ever before reached so far as records extend. In its mad career the torrent injured the mill-dam of Clarence and William P. Lawrence's grist-mill, and more than a hundred feet of the western wing wall of the stone bridge that spanned the creek on the West Chester road was swept away, the water reaching a point thir- teen feet beyond its usual level. The stone bridge near where the Marple and Springfield line meets on Darby Creek had a large part of the guard-wall de- molished. At Heysville the lower story of the woolen- factory then occupied by Moses Hey was flooded and the machinery much injured, while the dam there was entirely swept away.

Farther down the stream the paper-mill of Palmer & Masker was badly damaged, thirty feet of the build-

ing was undermined and fell, a paper-machine ruined, while the race and dam were broken. Just below stood the paper-mill of Obern Levis, and there the water leveled the drying-house to its foundations, and, burst- ing through the doors and windows of the basement of the mill itself on one side, swept out at the other, doing great damage to the machinery and stock. A small cotton-factory at or near the site of the present Union Mills, above the Delaware County turnpike in Upper Darby, thien occupied by John and Thomas Kent, was carried away by the flood, together with the machinery and stock, and an unoccupied dwelling was absolutely obliterated, nothing after the passage of the water remaining to mark the place whereon it stood. Three stone dwellings were partly carried away, and several private bridges were borne off by the current. At Kellyville the stone picker-house was washed away, together with the contents, and the basement story of the mill flooded. The next mill below, then owned by Asher Lobb's estate, on the Delaware County turnpike, and occupied by D. and C. Kelly, was flooded and the dam broken. It was here that a frame dwelling, near the bridge, occupied by Michael Nolan, his wife, five children, and a young woman, Susan Dowlan, was washed away. As the water swelled Nolan and his eldest son left the house to make arrangements to remove the family to a place of less danger, and not five minutes thereafter the wing wall of the bridge gave way, the loosened flood poured onward surrounding the house, and in half an hour bore the building from its foundations. The wife and four children were drowned. Susan Dowlan, when cast into the water, clutched as she was swept onward a branch of a tree, and thereby obtained a foothold on a knot which projected from its trunk in such a way that the trunk was interposed between her and the direction in which the floor was moving. Thus for nearly four hours she remained immersed to her waist in the water. When the freshet had subsided in a measure, Charles McClure, John Cun- ningham, and John Heller made an effort to rescue her. At great personal danger they ventured into the flood and obtained a position where the water was" shoaling, but an angry torrent still rushed between them and the tree to which the woman clung. Mc- Clure, taking the end of a rope, swam to her, and fastening it around her she was drawn to a place of safety. When rescued she was so exhausted that she could not have held her footing much longer. The bodies of Mrs. Nolan and her four children were re- covered the following day. The dam at Matthews' paper-mill, below Lobb's Run, was washed away to its foundation, and the water rushed violently through the floor of the mill, while farther on, at Bonsall's grist-mill, the dam and race were injured. The dam at Thomas Steel's mill, the last one on the creek at that time, was torn away completely, his cotton-house and stable removed by the flood, while the water, rising seventeen and a half feet at that point, inun-

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 26

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150