Storms, Freshets, And Earthquakes.

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 perished. 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 below 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 immediately 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 a 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 partially 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. Leiper's mill-dam 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 Holland, 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 gristmill of James Yarnall, near the county line, in Edgmont, 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 Bishop'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 gristmill, 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