History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 27

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

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1 Report on the Great Storm and Flood, made to Delaware County In- stitute, Jan. 4, 1844, p. 11.

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

dated the lower floor of his factory. When the large three-arched stone bridge at Darby, which had cost the county eleven thousand dollars, gave way and fell piece by piece until nothing but the abutments were left, Russell K. Flounders and Josiah Bunting, Jr., the former twenty-one and the latter nineteen years of age, were standing on the bridge watching the angry waters, and were precipitated into the flood and per- ished. The body of Flounders was found four days afterwards on the meadows two miles below, while Bunting's was not recovered for two weeks, when it was discovered wedged in among the broken arches of the bridge.

In Crum Creek, immediately below the Chester County line, at Jonathan W. Hatches' factory, a vacant dwelling-house was floated off, and the arch, one of the abutments, and part of each end of the wing walls of the stone bridge that spanned the creek on the West Chester road were washed away, while the stone arched bridge, known as Howard's bridge, on the road that intersected with the Newtown and Marple Line road, was almost destroyed. Below this point and above Hunter's Run a sleeper bridge was bodily carried off its abutment. At T. Chalkley Palmer's flour-mills the torrent tore away a wide and strong embankment; swept into a ruin a stone wagon-house fifty feet in length, and caused other damages in the vicinity. Trout Run, which empties into Crum Creek some distance helow Palmer's mill, was so swollen that the dam at Willet Paxson's mill was broken down, and at the bridge that crosses the run on the road from Springfield meeting-house to the Rose Tree, the water forced a deep channel through the western abutment. At Beatty's Hollow, where were located the edge-tool works, flour-, saw-, and plaster- mills owned by John C. Beatty, the dam was broken. All the buildings, except the flour-mill, together with the county bridge, which crosses the creek immedi- ately below the works, were swept away. Mr. Beatty stated that in ten minutes the water rose seven or eight feet ; that the bridge fell over as if there was no strength in it, the head gates burst, and "the edge- · tool factory went with a tremendous crash, and in an instant there was nothing to be seen but water in the place where it stood."

The day of the flood Mr. Beatty was putting in two new wheels and building a block for the head-block to rest on. A neighbor seeing the work, said, "Mr. Beatty, you are building a monument which will stand when you and your grandchildren are six feet under ground. It can't get away." Yet at five o'clock that afternoon there was not a stone to be found in place. Perciphor Baker, John Baker, and Mr. Beatty went to the mill when they found the water rising, and at that time no water was within twenty-five feet of the door, yet five minutes afterwards Mr. Beatty, chancing to look back, saw the water pouring in at the door they had just entered. The three men got out of the window and ran across the race bridge not a moment

too soon, for hardly had they reached a place of safety when the works and bridge were swept away before the wave of water, at least ten feet in height, which moved down the creek.

At the paper-mill of John Lewis, now J. Howard Lewis, part of the draw was swept away and the lower part of the mill flooded. The wooden bridge which spanned the creek at the Philadelphia, New London and Baltimore turnpike road was carried off by the current, while the dam of George Lewis' cotton-mills -now Wallingford-was destroyed, as also a stone dye-house, and the lower story inundated, the water rising twenty feet above its usual level. The dams at Strathaven and Avondale, the first located where Dick's Run enters the stream and the latter near where the Springfield roads cross Crum Creek (the factories at both places were then owned by William J. Leiper and occupied by James Riddle), were par- tially swept away. All the houses of the operatives at Avondale were submerged to the second stories ; the county bridge had its guard wall destroyed, and a team of five horses was drowned, the water rising so rapidly that the animals could not be gotten out of the stable. Farther down the creek George G. Leip- er's mill-damn was damaged and his canal broken, while a large tree coming down the stream root first was forced through one of the windows of the mill and got fastened in the machinery. The stone bridge that crossed the Queen's Highway at Leiperville had a small portion of the western wing walls carried away, and thirty-six head of cattle belonging to John Hol- land, which had been borne down the stream, passed beneath the arch and succeeded in reaching the meadow below it uninjured.

On Ridley Creek some slight damage occurred in Willistown, Chester Co., and the dam at the grist- mill of James Yarnall, near the county line, in Edg- mont, on a stream that empties into Ridley Creek, sustained injury, while the county bridge that crosses the creek on the highway from Providence road to the school-house near Howellville, known as Russell's bridge, was injured to some extent. At Amor Bish- op's mill the dam was destroyed and the buildings considerably damaged. Two houses, together with the furniture, were swept away. Strangely, the bridge at this point remained intact, although the greater part of the abutments on the western side was overthrown by the water. Edward Lewis' paper-mill below the Delaware County turnpike was demolished, as was also his saw-mill, and his flour-mill was nearly destroyed. The county bridge above him was hurled from its place and went down with the flood. Edward Lewis and his son, Edward, were in the third story of the grist-mill, when that structure began to yield and part of the walls fell, leaving them exposed in that perilous position. They subsequently reached a place of safety by use of a rope. The woolen-mill of Edward Taylor, then owned by Charles Sherman, was greatly injured, as well as the machinery and goods therein; the dam

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STORMS, FRESHETS, AND EARTHQUAKES.

was destroyed and three houses carried away by the freshet. A double frame house, occupied by William Tombs and James Rigley and their families, floated down the stream, lodging against the factory, opposite a window in the picker-room. From the upper win- dow of his house Rigley succeeded in passing his wife and child into the mill, and then rescued Tombs (who was ill at the time), his wife and two children from the garret of the house, to do which he was com- pelled to break a hole in the roof. How quickly he acted may be gathered from the fact that in six min- utes from the time this house rested against the mill it was again whirling down the stream. Below the woolen-factory of Samuel Bancroft the water reached twenty feet above the usual level. A portion of the factory, fifty by thirty-six feet, was absolutely de- stroyed, a quantity of wool was washed away and lost, and four dwellings wrecked. The latter was a long stone building which had been altered into four houses. In one of the centre dwellings resided George Hargraves, his wife, five children, and his brother, William Hargraves, and in the adjoining one lived Thomas W. Brown, his wife and child. When the flood came they endeavored to secure the household goods in the basement; the water rose so rapidly that their escape was cut off, and they retreated to the ! second story. William Hargraves, finding the walls of the building yielding to the force of the flood, plunged into the water and was carried down the stream for more than half a mile until, catching in a standing tree, he succeeded in holding on until the flood sub- sided and he was saved. While there, his brother George and his four eldest children on a bed borne by the current, passed by, and a moment after William saw them hurled into the water and drowned. The bodies were found about nine miles farther down the stream, that of the youngest child firmly grasped in its father's arms. Jane Hargrave, the wife of George, when the water broke through the house, with her baby in her arms, was standing in a corner of the room, and strangely that part of the floor, only a few feet square, remained, and there the woman stood for five long hours until rescued by Thomas Holt. In the adjoining dwelling Thomas W. Brown, his wife, and child stood on a corresponding part of the floor where Mrs. Hargrave stood, only it was not more than half as large as that she occupied. All else of 1 the two middle houses was carried away save that part of the wall which held up these broken pieces of the second-story flooring-boards.

machinery therein. The basement story of the mill itself was submerged. The wooden county bridge on the road from Hinkson's to Sneath's Corner was swept away, and the abutments injured. Some damage was done to the rolling-mill of J. Gifford Johnson, while at the woolen- and flour-mills of Enos Sharpless, at Waterville, the water rose eighteen feet, flooding the basement story, doing considerable damage, and a counting-house, a bath-house, and a temporary bark- house floated off. The bridge was carried away, but lodged less than a mile down the creek, and was sub- sequently recovered. Three-fourths of the dam was destroyed. John M. Sharpless, at the same place, lost a cooper-shop and its contents, while at the stone bridge which spanned the creek on the Providence road the arches were swept away, and one of the abutments was almost entirely destroyed. At Pierce Crosby's mill-now Irving's-the water rose twenty-one feet above the usual level, the dam was carried away, one dwelling floated off, and the flour- and saw-mill much injured. The county bridge at Crosbyville was swept off its abutments and broken. Farther down the creek, at the Queen's Highway, the eastern abutment was washed out and the bridge whirled down the current, while the railroad bridge at the present Eddystone Station was greatly damaged and the tressel-work on the eastern side swept away.

On the east branch of Chester Creek the dam at the rolling and nail factory belonging to the estate of John Edwards, in Thornbury, was broken, and a like damage was done at the paper- and flour-mill of James M. Wilcox, where a protection wall at the end of his mill was torn away. The tilt-mill of Thomas Thatcher was absolutely destroyed, nothing remaining after the waters subsided but the tilt-hammer and grindstone. Grubb's bridge, on the State road, although not carried away, was badly injured. At Lenni the dam was de- stroyed and the county bridge rendered almost worth- less, while about half a mile farther down the stream -at a large cotton factory belonging to the estate of Peter Hill, now Parkmount Mills, then unoccupied- the dam was broken and the mill injured.

It is necessary now to retrace our course up the east branch of Martin's or Rocky Run to David Green's cotton factory, located about half a mile south of Howellville. The dam here was washed away and the mill-the first story stone and the remainder frame-yielded to the torrents, and a large part of the stone work was removed, but sufficient remained to support the frame superstructure. The dam at the flour-mill of Humphrey Yearsley, in Middletown, about three-quarters of a mile south of the Edgmont line, gave way, as did also that at the saw-mill of Jo- seph Pennell, on Rocky Run, about three-quarters of a mile before the latter stream entered into the eastern branch of Chester Creek.

On Vernon's Run, which empties into Ridley Creek, the dam of the flour-mill of Thomas Hutton was swept away. At Park Shee's paper-mill the breast of the dam and the buildings were much injured, and two small houses destroyed. Here the water rose to twenty feet. At Edward Taylor's lower factory,-now Ban- croft's,-then owned by Charles Shermans, the dam Ascending the west branch of the same stream, the first dam on Chester Creek was at Caleb Brinton's was carried away, and the building used as a machine- shop and picker-house destroyed, together with the ' grist-, saw-, and clover-mill, in Thornbury, just above

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the Concord line, and here the dam gave way, as did also that of the flour-mill of Matthew Ash, in Concord, above Deborah's Run. The dam at the flour- and saw- mill of Casper W. Sharpless, about three-quarters of a mile lower down the stream, was broken, the water rising ten feet beyond its usual level. At the cotton- factory of Joseph M. Trimble, below the State road, the dam gave way, as did also that at the paper-mill of James M. Wilcox, at Ivy Mills. At this point the flood moved a store-house several feet, without de- stroying it. In Green Creek the water rose to an ex- traordinary height. At Samuel F. Peter's saw- and grist-mill, in Aston, just east of the Concord line and near the mouth of Green Creek, the dam was swept away and the saw-mill submerged to the roof. The freshet poured along the west branch and carried off the bridge where the Logtown road crosses that stream. At this place James Shelly Tyson's grist- mill was located, and here, as before, the dam broke and a dwelling-house was floated off. One mile be- low this point was the West Branch Mills of John P. Crozer, and less than a half-mile beyond, at Crozer- ville, was another cotton-factory belonging to the same gentleman. When the streams began to swell rapidly Mr. Crozer dispatched his son, Samuel A. Crozer, to the West Branch Mills, where he found the hands, as a precautionary measure, already engaged in removing goods from the lower to the upper story of the ware- house. Shortly after five o'clock the dam gave way, and soon after the warehouse, stone by stone, yielded to the flood, and fell with a crash, while at the same time the water-wheel, mill-gearing, dye-house and size-house floated away. Soon after, the northern wing of the three-story mill, forty-eight by thirty feet, began to give way, and, falling, carried with it eighty power-looms, much machinery, and goods. One of the corners of the centre building was also carried away, and the whole structure was momentarily ex- pected to fall. But the flood had spent its fury, and the work of destruction ceased at this point. The lower story of the mill at Crozerville was flooded, and the cotton-house, containing a number of bales, was swept away, as was also the county bridge at this place, while the abutments were leveled to the foun- dation.

The two branches of Chester Creek meeting at Cro- zerville, the united flood ran madly down the stream, which was swollen nearly twenty-four feet above its ordinary level. A story and a half building, formerly used as a machine-shop hy John Garsed, who had just taken the tools out, was washed entirely away, and the machinery in Riddle's mills was much damaged. One of the two stone houses owned by George Peter- son was washed away, and the other excessively dam- aged. The larger part of the furniture was floated out and borne off by the current. Near by John Rhoads, an aged man, owned four small houses, one of which was occupied by himself and family, and the others by tenants. The flood swept the buildings ab-

solutely away, leaving no trace, when the waters sub- sided, that they had ever stood there.

At the time the torrent poured down upon them, John Rhoads, his daughters, Hannah and Jane, and his granddaughter, Mary Ann Collingsworth, were in the dwelling, and with it they were swept away. All of them were drowned. In one of the houses, Mary Jane McGuigan and her infant child was washed away and perished. Her body was found early in April, 1844, a short distance from where the house which she occu- pied at the time of the freshet stood. The body of John Rhoads was found two and a half miles down the creek, one of his daughters at Baldwin's Run, nearly five miles away, while the body of the other daughter was borne into the Delaware, and was found near Naaman's Creek, about six miles below the mouth of Chester Creek. The corpse of the grandchild was not found until nearly six months afterwards, when a heavy rain on Jan. 17, 1844, washed away some earth near where Rhoads' house had stood, and exposed the remains to view. The superstructure of the county bridge at Pennsgrove was carried away, and imme- diately below, at Rockdale, the two dams of Richard S. Smith's factories were destroyed, as well as a block of four stone houses, fortunately at the time unoccu- pied.

At Knowlton the water rose thirty-three feet above the ordinary level of the creek, but this was partly due to the fact that driftwood gathered against the bridge, choking up the archways and, acting as a dam, turned the body of the flood against the factories at that point. Mr. Crozer's " Knowlton Mill," a three- storied stone building, thirty-six by seventy-six feet, recently fitted with new machinery, was razed to its foundation, the roof floating off as a whole, and the bell in the cupola tolling as the mass undulated on the struggling torrent. It was well that the disaster occurred when it did, for the hands, over fifty persons, had all retired to their homes, hence not a life was there lost. At the same place a frame mill owned by Mr. Crozer, and occupied by James Dixon, was swept away. Every dollar's worth of property the latter had in the world was lost, besides he was left in debt nearly a thousand dollars; but Mr. Crozer, his cred- itor, although he had sustained a loss of over seventy- five thousand dollars, immediately released Dixon from the obligation. The resistless water, as it sped onward to the Delaware, carried away J. & I. P. Dutton's flour-mills, which had stood nearly a cen- tury, as well as the saw-mill, barn, and wagon-house at that point.

Even the mansion-house was invaded by the flood, and two rooms were stripped of their furniture. Jona- than Dutton barely escaped with his life. He was carrying some articles from the lower to an upper story of the mill, when the great mass of water came rushing down upon the building. He fled to the upper story, and, feeling that the structure was yield- I ing to the torrents, he sprang out of a window, and

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fortunately succeeded in reaching a place of safety. The county bridge was here destroyed.

In the meadow just above Upland, Mary Jackson, a colored woman, was with her husband gathering drift-wood when the flood rushed down upon her, and hesitating for a moment in which direction to flee, he was overwhelmed by the water and drowned. The Chester Flour- and Saw-Mills, then owned by Richard Flower, were much injured, and the bridge at that place was swept away and the abutment greatly damaged. William G. Flower, who was at the time lessee of his father's mill, was in the meadow when the waters rushed down upon him, and he was whirled along until he succeeded in catching a vine which was entwined around a large tree on the race bank, and by means of which he mounted into. the branches, but the tree was torn up by the roots, and among drift-wood, timber, and trees he was carried down by the flood until he was lodged in a standing tree, to which he clung, although much exhausted, until the flood had in a measure abated, when Abner Wood bravely swam to him, carrying a rope, by means of which Mr. Flower was safely brought to shore.

At Chester the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad bridge was swept away, together with part of the western abutment; and the county bridge, at the present Third Street, was thrown from its place, but, as the superstructure was held by the chains on the eastern side, it did not prove a total loss. The pattern-house, with its contents, at Jacob G. Kitts' foundry, was floated away, as was the stone kitchen from William Kerlin's house, still standing on Third Street, near Penn, and the dwelling itself was much damaged, while a frame house and other outbuildings belonging to Mr. Kerlin were destroyed. The dwelling-house was occupied by William Benton, and all his household goods, his cart, dearborn, and other personal property were swept away. A bureau, containing his and his children's clothing, his watch, and all the money he had, was found floating at Pennsgrove, N. J., and was returned to Mr. Benton by the finder. It is reported that the water rose at Chester one foot a minute until it reached a point twenty-three feet higher than the ordinary high- water mark.

Harvey's saw-mill, but, so far as I have learned, very little damage other than that stated was sus- tained on that tributary.

Thirty-two county bridges were destroyed or seri- ously injured by the flood, while the individual losses on Darby Creek and its tributaries amounted to twenty thousand dollars; on Crum Creek, twenty- four thousand dollars; on Ridley, thirty-nine thou- sand dollars ; and Chester Creek, one hundred and five thousand dollars.

On Saturday, July 8, 1853, a destructive hail-storm passed over the townships of Thornbury, Upper and Nether Providence, Springfield, Upper Darby, and Darby, leveling the crops to the earth, and producing other damage. At Media over a hundred lights were broken in the court-house windows, a large number of those at the Charter House and in private houses, while at Crook's (Bancroft's) upper factory nearly every pane of glass on the west side of the building was broken.

Thursday, Aug. 11, 1870, the most violent storm and freshet to that time since the notable one of August, 1843, occurred, and the destruction it occa- sioned in Delaware County reached a quarter of a million dollars. On Rocky Run, twenty-five feet of the breast of Humphrey Yearsley's flour-mill, in Middletown, was swept away, as was also that at James Pennell's mill, farther down the stream. The flood, swollen by the contributions from these dams, rushed down upon the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad bridge which spans the run above Wawa, and near Pennelton Station. The five o'clock train from West Chester reached the bridge just when the water was the most turbulent, and the structure gave way beneath the weight of the train, together with the pressure of the flood. The engine, baggage-car, and a passenger-car were thrown into the stream. Fortunately, George W. Evans, the engineer, notic- ing that the bridge seemed wavering, whistled "down brake," the headway of the train was in a measure arrested, and it so happened that the first passenger- car, which contained about thirty persons, lingered for a few moments on the edge of the stream, just sufficient to permit the escape of the passengers, and then it plunged into the water. The fireman, who sprang from the engine when the whistle sounded, escaped without injury, but the engineer, brakeman, and baggage-master were much hurt.

As stated before, the volume of water on the Bran- dywine was not greatly increased, although some damage was done on that stream. The branches of At Lenni the dam at the factory of Robert L. Martin was broken, not less than a hundred feet of the dam-breast being torn away, and the loosened waters deluged the first story of the mill, damaging machinery, ruining goods, and making great havoc as it rushed by. At Parkmount, near Lenni, a por- tion of the dam-breast at George Glodhill's mill also gave way. Chester Creek was filled with floating rubbish ; lumber, logs, pig-styes,-the squeaking ani- mals still in the pens,-buckets, tables, stools, and Beaver Creek, a feeder of the Brandywine, in Dela- ware County, being within the territory where the cloud-burst occurred, rose sufficiently to break the dam at the saw-mill of Reese Perkins, just above where the Delaware line, at the extreme southwestern line of Birmingham, joins Concord township. The loss, . however, was not great. Harvey's Run, which emp- ties into the Brandywine a short distance below Chad's Ford, rose sufficient to break the dam of Thomas Brinton's grist-mill and that of Joseph P. | hundreds of other articles were borne off by the

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

rushing torrent. At Samuel Bancroft's upper bank, on Ridley Creek, the water rose rapidly, flooding the lower floor of the mill, damaging machinery, and injuring goods. The bridge over the race at this point was washed away. At John Fox's Hillboro' Mills the dam was injured, the house over the water- wheel of the mill, and part of the dye-house, with articles of personal property, were carried off, causing a loss of ten thousand dollars. The Rose Valley Mill of Antrim Osborn & Son was much injured, the dam-breast broken, and the wool-sheds and other property were floated off, causing a damage of nearly six thousand dollars. Two sloops belonging to Spen- cer McIlvain & Son were lifted over the bank at Ridley Creek and stranded thirty yards from that water-course, while the bridge over the Queen's Highway, although it was lifted a foot from its foun- dation, fortunately was not carried off its abutmeuts. At the paper-mill of J. Howard Lewis, on Crum Creek, the damages sustained amounted to nearly five thou- sand dollars, and at the axe-works of John C. Beatty the loss of property was greater than at Lewis' mill.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 27

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