Storms, Freshets, And Earthquakes.

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 destroying it. In Green Creek the water rose to an extraordinary 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 below this point was the West Branch Mills of John P. Crozer, and less than a half-mile beyond, at Crozerville, 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 warehouse. 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 expected 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 foundation.

The two branches of Chester Creek meeting at Crozerville, 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 by 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 Peterson was washed away, and the other excessively damaged. 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 absolutely away, leaving no trace, when the waters subsided, 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 occupied 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 immediately 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 unoccupied.

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 creditor, 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 century, 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. Jonathan 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 yielding to the torrents, he sprang out of a window, and