Storms, Freshets, And Earthquakes.

far above its usual height, so that the water covered the wharves, submerged the Front Street Railroad, flooded Roach's ship-yard, Lewis' Chester Dock Mills, and inundated the lower floor of the Steamboat Hotel. Morton, Black & Brother's planing-mill and lumber-yard suffered damage amounting to three thousand dollars, while at Mendenhall & Johnson's, Dutton & Anderson's, and J. & C. D. Pennell's lumber-yards the loss was large. Three canal-boats sunk at Weidner's wharf. As a storm simply it was the most furious one ever recorded as happening in this county.

Earthquakes. - The first earthquake which is recorded as having occurred in this vicinity was in October, 1727, and was so violent that in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston it "set the clocks to running down, and shook off china from the shelves,"¹ and in 1732 slight shocks were noticed in this part of the country. On Dec. 7, 1738, a severe shock was felt at night, "accompanied by a remarkable rumbling noise; people waked in their beds, the doors flew open, bricks fell from the chimneys, the consternation was serious, but, happily, no great damage ensued."² On Nov. 18, 1755, a severe shock was felt for eight hundred miles on the Atlantic coast, including this locality.³ On the night of March 22, 1763, a smart shock was felt, and on Sunday, Oct. 13, 1763, an earthquake, accompanied by a loud roaring noise, alarmed the good people of Philadelphia and surrounding country, and the congregations in churches and meeting-houses, fearing that the buildings would fall upon them, dismissed themselves without tarrying for the benediction. In an old volume on which is indorsed "Peter Mendenhall, his almanac for the year 1772," still in the ownership of his descendants in Chester County, under date of April 25, 1772, he records this interesting item: "At or near eight o'clock in the morning the roaring of an earthquake was heard, succeeded by a shake which made the house to tremble. A second ensued soon after the first had ceased, which was more violent." Peter Mendenhall then resided on a farm in Delaware County. On Jan 8, 1817, an earthquake occurred which tossed vessels about the river and raised the water one foot. On Sunday evening, June 17, 1871, about ten o'clock, the shock of an earthquake was distinctly felt in Delaware County, and on Monday morning, October 9th of the same year, at 8.40 o'clock, a severe shock was felt from Perryville, Md., to Philadelphia. The dwellings in the southern part of the county shook and trembled to their foundations, causing the inmates to run in alarm out of their houses. A rumbling sound as of the reverberation after the discharge of a cannon occurred during the shock. The quivering of the earth was more noticeable in the western part of this county and in Chester County. Bayard Taylor, who was at Cedarcroft, his residence, at Kennett Square, in a letter to the New York Tribune thus describes the shock in that locality:

³ Martin's "History of Chester," p. 463.

"The first symptoms were a low, rumbling sound, which rapidly increased to a loud, jarring noise, as if a dozen iron safes were rolling over the floors. The house shook from top to bottom, and at the end of ten or fifteen seconds both the noise and vibration were so violent as to alarm all the inmates. I had frequently experienced heavy earthquake shocks in other countries, but in no instances were they accompanied with such a loud and long-continued reverberation. For about fifteen seconds longer the shock gradually diminished, but the jarring noise was heard, seemingly in the distance, after the vibration ceased to be felt. The men at work in the field stated that the sound was first heard to the northward, that it apparently passed under their feet at the moment of greatest vibration, and then moved off southward. The birds all flew from their perches in the trees and hedges, and darted back and forth in evident terror. The morning had been very sultry and overcast, but the sky cleared and a fresh wind arose immediately afterwards. The wooden dwellings in the village were so shaken that the people all rushed into the streets. Some crockery was broken, I believe, but no damage was done to walls or chimneys. There was a light shock about midnight the following night. The first seemed to me to be nearly as violent as those succeeding the great earthquake which destroyed Corinth in 1858. It is thirty or forty years since any shock has been felt in this neighborhood."

On June 6, 1869, during a rainfall at Chester, occurred a shower of shells. Specimens of the shells were collected, and became the subject of consideration by the members of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.⁴ The shells proved to be a new species of Astarte, a genus that is essentially marine and found in every sea. The delicate character of the specimens indicate a Southern habitat, - most probably the coast of Florida, - and as the storm came in that direction it is believed that they came from there, and possibly were lifted into the clouds by a water-spout. The specimens which were gathered by the late Hon. Y. S. Walter, and presented to Mr. John Ford, a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, in remembrance of the peculiar circumstances in which they were discovered to the scientific world received the name Astarte Nubigena, or the cloud-born Astarte.

Chapter XV

The Ten Hour Movement.⁵

One of the most important movements, and, in the results which have flowed from it, of great moment to the people of Delaware County, the State of Pennsylvania, and, more or less, to the country at large, was first put into practical effect in the eastern portion of this State, and mainly through the efforts of a comparatively few individuals in the county of Delaware.

Much has been said and much controversy elicited