From The Second War With England To 1850.

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 circumstantial 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 destruction.

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 occurred 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 obstruction, the damage then sustained, although at the time it occurred regarded as great, was trifling when compared with that of 1843. In 1822 a noticeable freshet occurred in Delaware County consequent "on the rapid melting of the deep snow. The millponds 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.

³ Smith's "History of Delaware County," p. 355.

On Friday night, Jan. 24, 1839, rain began to fall, and continued without intermission until Saturday afternoon, when it ceased; the snow and ice, melting under the warm rain, filling the streams until 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 on 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 distance 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, managed 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.⁴ 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 village, 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 impossible 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